LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY      F  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


THE  COVENANTER,  THE  CAVALIER, 
AND  THE  PURITAN. 


BY 

OLIVER   PERRY   TEMPLE, 

For  twelve  years  one  of  the  Equity  Judges  of  Tennessee. 

J- 

i> 


CINCINNATI: 
THE  ROBERT  CLARKE  COMPANY. 

1897. 


LIBRARY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


Copyright,  1897,  by  Oliver  Perry  Temple. 


TO    THE 

SCOTCH=IRISH  SOCIETY  OF  AMERICA, 

WHICH   IS  DOING  SO  MUCH 

TO  RESCUE  FROM  OBLIVION  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE 

COVENANTER  PEOPLE, 

3Eis  litik  Book  iz 


BY  AN  HUMBLE  CO-LABORER  IN  THE  SAME  WORTHY  CAUSE, 

THE  AUTHOR. 


PREFACE. 

The  publication  of  this  little  book  in  its  present 
form  is  due  to  an  accidental  circumstance.  The 
matter  it  contains  was  prepared  as  a  part  of  a  larger 
and  perhaps  more  important  historical  work,  on 
which  I  am  now  engaged,  and  which  I  hope  will 
soon  be  in  print.  Happening  to  show  some  of  the 
chapters  to  a  friend,  in  whose  judgment  I  had  great 
confidence,  he  said  to  me :  u  Why  not  publish 
these  chapters  as  a  separate  book?  The  matter 
they  contain  is  only  remotely  related  to  that  of  the 
main  book,  and  the  two  should  not  appear  to 
gether."  It  happened  that  my  own  mind  was  run 
ning  in  the  same  direction,  and  had  nearly  arrived 
at  the  same  conclusion.  The  publication  of  this 
book,  in  its  present  form,  is,  therefore,  mainly  due 
to  that  interview.  It  is,  as  it  were,  a  leaf  torn  from 
another  book. 

The  chief  reason  for  writing  so  fully,  or  at  all, 
about  the  Covenanters  is  given  in  the  opening  sen 
tences  of  Chapter  IV  of  this  book.  The  error  and 
injustice  there  referred  to  are  remarkable,  indeed 
amazing;  but  it  is  not  too  late  to  correct  them  by 


VI  PREFACE. 

letting  in  the  light  of  history.  A  brief  comparison 
of  the  record  of  the  Covenanters  with  that  of  the 
Cavaliers  and  the  Puritans  shows  in  how  remark 
able  a  manner  the  former  people  have  been  neg 
lected  and  ignored  in  the  history  and  the  public 
thought  of  the  country.  If  I  shall  be  able  to 
quicken  the  interest  in  this  great  race,  already  ex 
isting,  awakened  by  the  noble  efforts  of  "  The 
Scotch-Irish  Society  of  America,"  I  shall  feel  that 
I  have,  indeed,  done  a  good  work. 

In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  return  my  special  ac 
knowledgments  to  R,  R,  Sutherland,  D.  D.,  formerly 
of  this  city,  but  now  of  Danville,  Kentucky,  to 
Judge  H.  II.  Ingersoll  and  Joshua  W.  Caldwell  for 
valuable  suggestions  and  assistance  given  to  me  in 

the  revision  of  this  work. 

THE  AUTHOR. 
KNOXVILLE,  TENN.,  February,  1897. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  COVENANTERS  IN  SCOTLAND  AND  IRELAND.  PAGE 
Religion  of  the  Scottish  People— The  Reformation  in 
Scotland — The  Nobles  join  it — John  Knox — The  Rev 
olution— Calvinistic  Church  established — Mary,  Queen 
of  Scots — Romish  Church  overthrown— The  Nobles 
appropriate  the  revenues — Discontent  of  Presbyterian 
Clergymen— Democratic  spirit  of  the  Kirk — Ministers 
poor — Elected  by  congregations — Church  of  England — 
Henry  VIII — Persecutions  in  England — Persecutions 
in  Scotland  under  James  I  and  Charles  I— Attempt  to 
force  Book  of  Liturgy  on  Presbyterians  of  Scotland  — 
Renewal  of  the  "  National  League  and  Covenant  "- 
Invasion  of  Scotland  by  England — Expulsion  of  Pres 
byterian  Clergymen  from  their  pulpits — Become  ex 
iles—Horrible  persecutions — Triumph  of  the  Cove 
nanters — Covenanter  Colony  in  Ireland  — Persecutions 
encountered  there — Covenanters  seek  homes  in  the 
Colonies— Influence  of  the  Revolution  in  Scotland  on 
England — Education  in  Scotland — Founding  of  her 
Universities — Education  in  the  Colonies  under  the 
Covenanters 9 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  COVENANTERS  IN  THE  REVOLUTION. 
The  term  Covenanter — What  it  signifies— Influence  of 
Covenanters  in  bringing  on  the  American  Revolution — 
Authorities  quoted  to  this  effect — Action  of  the  Pres 
byterian  Synod  of  Philadelphia  in  1775— Action  of 
Continental  Congress,  July  8, 1775,  declaring  it  had  no 

(vii) 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

design  of  establishing  independent  States — Pastoral 
letter  of  the  Synod — Covenanters  all  united  in  favor 
of  Independence— Patrick  Henry  sustained  by  Cove 
nanters  in  Virginia — Action  of  the  people  on  the 
Holston  in  Fincastle  County— Rev.  Charles  Cu minings, 
Colonel  Wrn.  Campbell,  Colonel  Arthur  Campbell,  and 
others  on  the  remote  frontier  declare  for  Independ 
ence—Augusta  County— Covenanters  of  Worcester 
County,  Mass. — Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  oppose  In 
dependence — Public  meeting  in  Philadelphia— Over 
throw  of  the  Proprietary  Government — Covenanters 
in  Pennsylvania — The  situation  of  Continental  Con 
gress — Decisive  speech  of  John  Witherspoon — Cove 
nanters  foremost  in  fighting  battles  of  Revolution  in 
Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and  South  Carolina — Episco 
palians  in  the  Revolution— Covenanter  Declaration  of 
Independence  at  Mecklenburg— Battle  of  King's 
Mountain— Influence  of  Covenanters  in  framing  Con 
stitution — Part  they  took  in  defending  frontiers  in  the 
Revolution  —  Its  far-reaching  importance  —  Western 
boundary  line 40 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  COVENANTERS  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

Difference  between  grievances  of  Puritans  and  Cove 
nanters — Dependence  of  New  England — Enforcement 
of  Navigation  Act— Resistance  thereto— Tumults- 
Closing  the  port  of  Boston— Charter  revised— Sym 
pathy  and  aid  of  other  Colonies  for  Boston — Love 
of  Massachusetts  for  England — Love  of  Cavaliers  for 
England — Slow  to  break  away  from — Covenanters 
hated  England  for  her  wrongs  to  them — Were  every 
where  active  in  opposition  to  England — English  in 
fluence  in  Southern  Colonies — Episcopalians — A  ma 
jority  of  population  in  the  South — That  of  Virginia, 
New  England,  of  all  the  Colonies— Covenanters  in 
New  England — Number  in  all  the  Colonies — The 
most  numerous  race — Number  of  Cavaliers— Cove- 


CONTENTS.  IX 

nanters  in  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  Georgia  and  North 
and  South  Carolina— Spread  into  all  the  new  States 
of  the  South— Percentage  of  foreign  blood  in  the  , 
States— Tories  numerous  in  the  Revolution— Cove 
nanters  most  numerous  righting  race — They  settle  in 
the  South— "  Puritans  of  the  South"— Contrast  be 
tween  Puritans  and  Covenanters — Massachusetts  and 
Virginia  in  the  Revolutionary  Army — Puritan  war 
fare  in  the  South — Splendid  record  of  Massachusetts 
in  the  Revolution 81 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER. 

Covenanters  left  out  of  consideration  by  writers  and 
speakers — The  most  numerous  of  the  classes— Cove 
nanter  ideas  prevailed  in  Virginia— John  Knox's  de 
claration — Cavaliers  the  ruling  class  in  Virginia— Po 
litical  and  religious  opinions— Bloody  penal  Code — Re 
ligious  disabilities — Early  inhabitants — Many  densely 
ignorant — Sir  William  Berkeley,  Governor,  on  educa 
tion — Education  neglected— Life  among  the  upper 
classes — Feasting,  frolicking,  drinking  and  gambling — 
Dissipation  of  the  Clergy — Cruelty  to  dissenters — 
Gloomy  condition  of  the  Colony — The  Covenanters 
appear  in  the  Colony — They  erect  Churches,  start 
schools  and  spread  westward— Patrick  Henry— His 
origin — Offers  Resolutions  in  the  House  of  Burgesses 
denouncing  Stamp  Act — His  speech  on— The  Country 
electrified — Thomas  Jefferson — Becomes  a  reformer — 
The  Presbytery  of  Hanover  sends  a  petition  to  the 
Legislature  asking  for  freedom  of  speech — Then  a 
second,  a  third,  a  fourth,  a  fifth  and  a  sixth — They  at 
last  triumph — Bitterness  of  Mr.  Jefferson  toward  the 
Presbyterians — Was  a  free  thinker 117 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER — Continued. 

'  Love  of  Church  and  loyalty  to  King  in  Virginia— Love 
of  liberty — Nathaniel  Bacon— Mr.  Burke  on  love  of 
liberty  in  the  South— Landed  estates  in  Virginia- 
Tobacco  used  as  money — Indentured  servants — Splen 
did  hospitality.— Covenanter  element  introduced — 
Covenanters  superior  to  Cavaliers — Patrick  Calhoun  on 
the  Covenanters — Education  among  the  Covenanters 
in  the  Colonies,  in  Ireland — In  North  Carolina,  in 
South  Carolina  and  in  Georgia— Covenanters  in  New 
Hampshire — Roosevelt  on  early  inhabitants  of  Ten 
nessee  and  Kentucky— Covenanters  on  the  Holston — 
Covenanters  not  paupers — Why  education  declined 
with  Southern  Covenanters— Covenanter  influence  in 
forming  the  institutions  of  the  South— Little  known  of 
the  Covenanters— The  reason  of  this— Henry  Watterson 
on  the  Covenanters — They  made  the  Southern  States — 
Their  monuments — Great  names  among  them — Their 
influence  in  making  the  West— Covenanter  ideas  and 
characteristics  in  Southern  Society — Preach  the  same 
faith  their  fathers  did— Southern  women — High  moral 
and  religious  standard  in  the  South 143 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  COVENANTERS  AND  THE  PURITANS. 

The  Puritans— Grand  History  since  1761 — Important  in 
fluence  in  England— Revolution  started  by  Cove 
nanters  in  Scotland — Puritans  leave  England— Cove 
nanters  a  better  race  than  the  Puritans — Comparison 
of  two  races — The  Church  in  Massachusetts — A  cruel 
theocracy — Enumeration  of  cruelties,  with  authorities 
cited — Annals  stained  with  narrowness  and  crimes — 
Whipping,  banishment,  and  hanging— Children  con 
demned  to  banishment — Intolerance — Reason  given 
for  cruelties  and  intolerance — Reasons  examined — Not 
the  best  educated  people  in  the  Colonies — Massachu- 


CONTENTS.  XI 

setts  as  the  leader  of  liberal  ideas— Caste— Difference 
between  Puritans  and  Covenanters  as  to  liberal  ideas — 
Massachusetts  as  to  the  equality  of  men  before  the 
law 180 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  COVENANTERS  AND  THE  PURITANS — Continued. 
Noble  traits  of  the  Puritans — Their  liberality  and  public 
spirit  — Puritans  and  Covenanters  contrasted — The 
Puritans  a  Commercial  people — Kept  in  a  compact 
body — The  Covenanters  separated  and  scattered — 
Forced  into  interior — Covenanters  build  up  a  high 
civilization  in  the  South — Their  influence  extends  to 
North-western  States — Were  an  agricultural  people — 
No  stimulus  to  authorship — Politics  the  highway  to 
honor — Free  thought  and  speculation  in  New  En 
gland — Caste  and  social  distinctions  in  Massachu 
setts—Puritans  and  Covenanters  in  the  Revolution — 
The  blood  of  the  latter  in  the  South— Their  liberal 
ideas  and  influence  in  molding  the  thought  and  in 
stitutions  of  the  South 212 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  PRESBYTERIANS  AND  OTHER  DENOMINATIONS. 
The  terms  Covenanter,  Presbyterian,  and  Scotch-Irish — 
Covenanter  blood  in  all  Churches — Presbyterians  in 
the  South — Have  lost  ground — Pioneer  Methodists 
and  Baptists— Methodists  in  1770,  in  1818  and  1890— 
Wonderful  growth — Itinerant  system — Remarkable 
growth  of  Baptist  Church — Its  record  in  behalf  of 
political  and  religious  liberty— Roger  Williams— Num 
bers  of  the  leading  denominations  given — Educational 
standard  in  leading  churches — Usefulness  of  Christian 
Ministry— Civilizing  influence  of  religion — Honor  to 
the  memory  of  Luther,  Calvin,  Knox,  Roger  Will 
iams — Influence  of  Calvinism  on  the  destiny  of  the 
world — Authorities  quoted — Mission  of  Presbyterian- 
ism — Presbyterians  in  the  South 230 


THE  COVENANTER,  THE  CAVALIER,  AND 
THE  PURITAN. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  COVENANTERS  IN  SCOTLAND  AND  IRELAND. 

Religion  of  the  Scottish  People— The  Reformation  in  Scot 
land — The  Nobles  join  it— John  Knox— The  Revolution — 
Calvinistic  Church  established — Mary,  Queen  of  Scots — 
Romish  Church  overthrown — The  Nobles  appropriate  the 
revenues — Discontent  of  Presbyterian  Clergymen — Demo 
cratic  spirit  of  the  Kirk — Ministers  poor — Elected  by  con 
gregations — Church  of  England — Henry  VIII — Persecu 
tions  in  England — Persecutions  in  Scotland  under  James  I 
and  Charles  I — Attempt  to  force  Book  of  Liturgy  on  Pres 
byterians  of  Scotland — Renewal  of  the  "  National  League 
and  Covenant" — Invasion  of  Scotland  by  England— Ex 
pulsion  of  Presbyterian  Clergymen  from  their  pulpits — 
Become  exiles— Horrible  persecutions— Triumph  of  the 
Covenanters— Covenanter  Colony  in  Ireland — Persecutions 
encountered  there — Covenanters  seek  homes  in  the 
Colonies— Influence  of  the  Revolution  in  Scotland  on  En 
gland — Education  in  Scotland — Founding  of  her  Univer 
sities—Education  in  the  Colonies  under  the  Covenanters. 

In  this  chapter  I  shall  briefly  give  an  account  of 
the  origin  and  rise  of  the  Covenanters  in  Scotland, 
and  of  the  persecutions  they  endured  there;  I  shall 
notice  the  transplanting  of  a  part  of  them  in  Ire- 

(ix) 


10  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

land,  their  sojourn  and  persecutions  in  their  new 
home,  and  finally  give  an  account  of  their  depart 
ure  for  the  American  Colonies.  All  this  will  be  a 
mere  summary  of  the  history  of  these  important 
events. 

To  understand  who  and  what  the  Covenanters 
were,  it  is  necessary  to  turn  to  the  history  of  the 
Scottish  people.  The  history  of  Scotland  during 
the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  is  largely  a 
history  of  its  religion.  From  time  immemorial  the 
people  of  that  country  had  professed  the  Catholic 
faith.  With  the  great  awakening  in  Europe, 
caused  by  the  Reformation,  there  came  a  change 
in  Scotland  also.  Suddenly  the  people  turned 
from  Catholicism  to  Calvinism,  with  a  unanimity 
seldom  witnessed  in  the  transition  from  one  reli 
gion  to  another. 

The  Reformation,  in  Scotland,  was  at  first  the 
work  of  the  Nobles.  James  V,  with  the  advice 
of  the  Romish  Prelates,  determined  to  strip  the 
Nobles  of  all  power  in  the  State.  One  step  after 
another  followed  in  quick  succession  toward  the 
accomplishment  of  this  purpose.  They  were  de 
prived  of  many  of  their  ancient  privileges,  and  a 
number  of  them  were  driven  into  exile.  These 
proud  spirited  men,  accustomed  to  the  exercise 
of  almost  regal  authority,  were  not  made  of  the 


COVENANTERS    IN    SCOTLAND    AND    IRELAND.          11 

stuff  tamely  to  submit  to  this  degradation.  Their 
retainers,  with  the  love  of  rank  and  hereditary 
titles  then  prevalent  in  Scotland,  sided  with  them. 
The  Nobles,  in  revenge  for  the  ill-treatment  they 
were  receiving  from  the  King  and  Church,  joined 
the  Reformation. 

In  1542,  James  Y  died,  leaving  a  widow,  Mary 
of  Guise,  and  a  daughter,  the  ill-fated  Mary  Stuart, 
afterward  Queen  of  Scots.  The  widow  became 
Regent  of  Scotland,  while  the  infant  Mary  was 
sent  to  France  to  be  educated  under  the  influence 
of  her  Catholic  relatives.  The  French  King, 
backed  by  the  powerful  Guises,  plotted  with  the 
Regent  of  Scotland  to  purge  that  country  of  Prot 
estantism,  to  dethrone  Elizabeth  of  England,  and 
to  annex  the  British  Isles  to  France.  To  aid  the 
Regent  who  had  threatened  to  drive  all  the  re 
formed  ministers  out  of  the  Kingdom,  "although 
they  preached  as  truly  as  St.  Paul,"*  a  French 
army  invaded  Scotland.  Protestantism  had  made 
by  this  time  great  headway  among  the  middle  and 
poorer  classes.  The  Gospel  had  been  preached  to 
them  by  their  own  earnest  ministers.  Nowhere  in 
Europe  had  the  Catholic  priesthood  been  more  de 
praved.*  The  people  and  a  majority  of  the  Nobles 

*  Campbell's  Puritan  in  Holland,  England,  and  America, 
Vol.  II,  5. 


12  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

were  united  in  the  determination  to  resist  the  over 
throw  of  their  new  faith. 

John  Knox  had  been  absent  for  some  years  with 
Calvin  in  Geneva.  Foreseeing  the  storm,  the 
Nobility  invited  him  to  come  home.  Immediately 
upon  his  return,  he  was  proclaimed  a  rebel  and  an 
outlaw.  The  Nobility  prepared  to  defend  him  and 
the  Protestant  religion  with  arms.  It  was  a  time 
of  extreme  peril.  Bat  no  earthly  dangers  could 
silence  tlie  voice  of  Knox  or  conquer  his  undaunted 
spirit.  As  troubles  thickened,  he  was  kindled  into 
higher  enthusiasm.  He  inspired  his  followers  with 
his  own  great  courage.  Says  Campbell:  "He 
was  born  a  warrior,  and  could  blow  nothing  but  a 
bugle's  blast.  lie  blew  his  blast,  and  the  whole 
Papal  edifice,  already  honeycombed  and  under 
mined,  came  tumbling  down  in  ruins."  Morton 
said  of  him  :  "  He  never  feared  the  face  of  mortal 
man."  Fronde's  estimate  is  :  "Knox  was  the  most 
extraordinary  man  of  that  extraordinary  age." 

In  May,  1559,  Knox  arrived  in  Scotland.  Nine 
days  later,  the  people,  maddened  into  fury,  rose 
and  stripped  the  monasteries  of  their  images  and 
pictures.  With  the  aid  of  English  troops,  the 
Drench  Army  was  driven  out  of  Scotland.  In 
July,  1560,  the  Scotch  Parliament  reconstructed 
the  Church  under  the  inspiration  of  Knox.  Every 


COVENANTERS    IN    SCOTLAND    AND    IRELAND.          13 

vestige  of  Papacy  except  the  name  of  Bishop  was 
abolished.  The  Calviiiistic  faith  was  made  the 
national  religion  of  Scotland.  The  Mass  was  abol 
ished,  and  heavy  penalties  imposed  on.  all  who  par 
ticipated  in  its  celebration.  Thus  was  established 
the  celebrated  Kirk  of  Scotland. 

It  could  scarcely  be  expected  that  in  that  age  of 
narrowness  and  persecution  Knox  could  rise  above 
the  spirit  of  his  time,  and  introduce  universal  tol 
eration  in  the  exercise  of  religion  ;  nor  did  he.  He 
fell  short  of  the  glory  won  a  few  years  later  by 
William  the  Silent,  another  disciple  of  Calvin,  who 
was  the  first  of  the  Reformed  Princes  to  extend 
religions  toleration  in  his  dominions  to  all  sects 
and  creeds,  although  at  that  very  time  his  people 
were  suffering  one  of  the  most  remorseless  perse 
cutions  recorded  in  history.* 

In  August,  1561,  Mary  Stuart,  now  the  widow 


*  Alva  left  the  Netherlands  boasting  that  he  had  executed 
18,600  heretics  and  traitors,  exclusive  of  those  who  had  fallen 
in  battle,  siege,  and  massacre.  According  to  Grotius,  100,000 
heretics  were  put  to  death  in  the  Netherlands  under  the  edicts 
of  Charles  V.  '  Motley  says  the  number  has  never  been  esti 
mated  at  less  than  50,000.  The  number  who  fell  in  the  St. 
Bartholomew  massacre,  in  France,  those  in  Paris  and  else 
where,  is  estimated  at  from  20,000  to  30,000.  Those  who  per 
ished  by  the  Inquisition  in  Spain,  from  1435  to  1808,  are  put  at 
about  32,000.— Campbell,  Vol.  I,  166. 


14  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

of  Francis  II,  came  back  to  Scotland,  to  reign  over 
her  native  land.  She  was  young,  beautiful,  and 
possessed  striking  attractions  both  of  person  and 
mind.  Her  charms  were  so  extraordinary  that  she 
was  regarded  by  some  of  the  grave  Scotch  Presby 
terians  with  alarm,  as  an  enchantress,  "by  whom 
all  men  seemed  to  be  bewitched."  On  her  arrival, 
she  professed  friendship  for  the  Kirk,  and  only 
wished,  as  she  said,  toleration  for  herself.  But  her 
seductive  manners  and  winning  words  had  no  in 
fluence  on  John  Knox.  A  memorable  interview 
took  place  between  them,  in  which  she  spoke  of 
the  rebellious  disposition  of  her  subjects,  and  asked 
whether  he  thought  it  right  for  her  subjects  to  re 
sist  their  sovereign.  He  replied,  that  if  a  father 
went  mad  and  tried  to  kill  his  children,  they  might 
properly  tie  his  hands  and  take  his  weapons  from 
him.  "Let  Prince  and  subject  both  obey  God." 
This  wras  eighty  years  before  the  Puritans  and  In 
dependents  of  England  gave  a  practical  illustra 
tion  of  the  meaning  of  the  words  of  Knox  in  the 
execution  of  the  grandson  of  this  radiant  young 
Queen,  to  whose  unwelcome  ears  this  was  spoken. 
At  the  very  time,  however,  Mary  was  professing 
friendship  for  the  Kirk,  and  a  willingness  to  toler 
ate  the  Presbyterians,  she  was  plotting  with  France 
and  Spain  for  their  extermination,  and  for  the  res- 


COVENANTERS   IN    SCOTLAND   AND    IRELAND.       .   15 

toration  of  the  Papacy.  Under  the  influence  of 
their  great  leader,  Knox,  the  Scotch  people  had 
become  a  compact,  almost  a  solid  mass  of  earnest, 
determined  reformers,  devoted  to  their  new  faith 
and  ready  to  suffer  and  to  die  for  it. 

Mary,  who  seemed  to  be  born  only  for  sunshine 
and  happiness,  was  soon  overwhelmed  with  shad 
ows  and  misfortune,  and  after  six  years  she  abdi 
cated  her  throne  in  favor  of  her  infant  son,  James 
VI,  afterward  James  I  of  England.  From  the 
throne  she  passed  into  an  English  prison  and  un 
der  the  power  of  her  heartless  cousin,  Queen  Eliz 
abeth,  by  whom  she  was  at  length  beheaded.  Many 
as  were  the  faults  and  crimes  of  "  Mary,  Queen  of 
Scots,"  the  sympathy  of  the  world  has  been  with 
her,  rather  than  with  the  false  and  heartless  Eliza 
beth. 

For  nearly  thirty  years,  the  struggle  between 
royal  authority  and  the  Church  of  Rome,  on  the 
one  side,  and  the  Nobles  with  the  common  people, 
on  the  other,  was  carried  on,  often  resulting  in 
conflicts  of  arms.*  Finally,  in  1560,  the  Nobles 
and  the  people  triumphed,  and  the  Romish  Church 
disappeared  from  Scotland  forever  as  a  dominant 

t  Campbell's  Puritan  in  Holland,  England,  and  America,  Vol. 
II,  3,  4;  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization,  Vol.  II,  165,  167,  181, 
184,  185. 


16  .  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

ecclesiastical  power.  The  Kirk  took  its  place,  and 
Protestantism  became  supreme.  The  next  great 
struggle  was  to  be  with  the  Church  of  England, 
supported  by  all  the  power  of  the  House  of  the 
Stuarts. 

The  Nobles  who  had  done  so  much  to  effect  this 
great  Revolution  naturally  considered  themselves 
entitled  to  the  lands,  the  property,  and  the  revenue 
of  the  Church  which  they  had  overthrown.  Ac 
cordingly,  they  reserved  for  themselves  five-sixths 
of  the  revenues,  and  allowed  one-sixth  only  to  the 
Presbyterian  Clergy.  This  gave  serious  offense  to 
the  latter  class.  They  were  poor;  their  support 
was  scant  and  meager.  Most  of  them  were  of  the 
common  people;  a  fact  which  of  itself  enabled 
them  to  exercise  great  powrer  and  influence.  When 
these  ministers  preached,  heart  spoke  to  heart. 
Among  poor  and  ignorant  people,  words  and  les 
sons  uttered  by  their  fellows  fell  with  touching 
force.  Says  a  recent  writer :  "Sermons  to  them 
from  ministers  well  clothed  and  sumptuously  fed 
wrould  have  produced  about  as  much  effect  as  a 
lecture  from  the  rich  man  to  Lazarus  on  the  beau-, 
ties  of  humility  and  poverty.  .  .  .  Christianity 
came  very  close  to  the  heart  of  the  peasant  or 
artisan  when  its  doctrines  were  preached  by  men 


COVENANTERS    IN    SCOTLAND    AND    IRELAND.          17 

no  richer  than  himself,  dependent  for  their  sub 
sistence  on  his  voluntary  contributions."* 

The  great  body  of  the  people  also  were  poor. 
This  fact  helps  to  explain  the  democratic  spirit  of 
Calvinism  in  Scotland.  The  people  became  a 
power  in  the  State.  The  Church  government, 
as  finally  modified,  was  democratic  in  all  its 
features.  It  w^as  a  government  of  majorities,  in 
which  all  had  a  voice.  Says  Lecky :  "  The  Kirk 
was  by  its  constitution  essentially  republican. "f 
The  office  and  title  of  Bishop  were  soon  abolished. 
The  Ministers  had  but  little  more  authority  than 
the  humblest  layman. 

And  let  it  be  kept  in  mind  that  this  was  the 
condition  of  things  more  than  three  centuries  ago. 
Three  hundred  years  of  marvelous  progress,  such 
as  the  world  never  witnessed  before,  have  added 
nothing  to  the  work  of  these  humble,  and  in  many 
cases  ignorant,  Scotch  Covenanters  under  the 
guidance  of  John  Knox.  The  church  polity 
worked  out  by  them  is  to  this  day  the  substantial 
basis  of  all  government  in  all  Presbyterian  or 
ganizations  throughout  the  world.  It  was  the 
work  of  the  people  for  themselves  under  the 
advice  of  wise  leaders. 

The  ministers  of  the  Kirk  insisted    that  every 

*  Campbell,  Vol.  IT,  10.  t  Ib.,  45. 


18      COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

man  should  read  the  Bible  for  himself.  "  The 
Scottish  Commons,"  says  Froude,  "  are  the  sons 
of  their  religion;  they  are  so  because  that  religion 
taught  them  the  equality  of  man."  The  "  Book 
of  Discipline "  declared  that,  all  the  preachers 
being  fellow-laborers,  all  were  equal  in  power  and 
that  none  but  God  had  spiritual  authority  over 
them. 

These  preachers  were  called  to  their  work  by 
the  election  of  the  Congregation,  and  not  by  ap 
pointment  or  nomination  of  the  King  or  a  Bishop. 

Although  the  Romish  Church  had  been  over 
thrown  in  Scotland,  the  followers  of  the  reformed 
faith  had  before  them  a  long  and  a  terrible  strug 
gle  with  the  Church  of  England.  They  were  yet 
to  endure  bitter  trials  before  the  day  of  permanent 
rest  and  repose  was  attained. 

After  Henry  VIII  quarreled  with  the  Pope,  on 
account  of  his  numerous  divorces,  he  became  the 
ecclesiastical  and  spiritual  head  of  the  Church  of 
England.  He  discarded  some  of  the  doctrines  of 
the  Romish  Church  and  introduced  some  reforms. 
In  one  respect,  however,  the  Church  of  England 
remained  just  as  its  august  predecessor  had  always 
been.  It  looked  upon  all  dissent  from  the  doc 
trines  and  practices  of  the  Church  as  heresy,  and 
it  was  punishable  with  death  at  the  will  of  its 


COVENANTERS   IN    SCOTLAND    AND   IRELAND.          19 

head.  There  was  little  more  toleration  under  the 
new  hierarchy  than  there  had  been  under  the  old. 
Persecutions  of  dissenters  and  heretics  and  per 
sons  professing  any  of  the  reformed  faiths  were 
still  practiced  under  Elizabeth  and  Mary,  under 
James  I  and  Charles  I,  and  later  on  under 
Charles  II  and  James  II,  as  they  had  been  in  the 
days  of  the  Popish  supremacy.  Under  "Bloody 
Mary"  two  hundred  and  seventy-seven  persons 
suffered  death  on  account  of  their  religion.  Eliza 
beth,  after  she  ceased  to  desire  to  be  reconciled  to 
the  Romish  Church,  in  fourteen  years,  put  to  death 
for  alleged  spiritual  felonies,  sixty-one  Catholic 
Clergymen,  forty-seven  laymen  and  two  gentle 
women,  most  of  the  victims  being  drawn  and 
quartered.*  So,  too,  the  persecutions  went  on 
under  her  successors. 

It   is  not  surprising   that   the    Stuarts  and    the 

Bishops  sought  to  strangle  the   Covenanters,  and 

to  overthrow  the  Kirk.     Episcopacy  was  the  main 

stay  of  royal    prerogatives.     It  led   naturally  and 

logically  to    the  doctrine    of  the  divine    right    of 

Kings,  and  has  always  been  the  strongest  bulwark 

of  the  English  aristocracy.     The    Clergy  of  that 

Church,  in  England,  had  uniformly  been  tories.f 

Most  naturally  they  sustained  their  patrons  in 

*  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  211.  t  Id.,  11. 


20  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

every  struggle  to  lessen  the  power  or  limit  the 
prerogatives  of  the  Crown.  Macaulay,  in  speak 
ing  of  the  English  Church,  says :  "All  her  tradi 
tions,  all  her  tastes  were  monarchical.  Loyalty 
became  a  point  of  professional  honor  among  her 
clergy,  the  peculiar  badge  which  distinguished 
them  at  once  from  Calvinists  and  papists."  * 

The  King  was  the  head  of  the  Church.  Arch 
bishop,  Bishop,  and  all  lower  prelates,  were  subject 
to  him.  From  him  directly  or  indirectly  they 
held  their  Sees,  offices  and  benefices,  and  derived 
their  revenues.  He  determined  what  was  heresy 
and  what  was  not.  With  the  power  of  removal, 
it  can  be  easily  seen  how  dependent  the  Clergy 
were  on  the  Crown,  and  what  a  stay  the  Crown 
had  in  them.  Thus  the  whole  Church  was 
brought  into  absolute  subordination  to  the  King. 

The  English  Church,  although  there  may  be 
a  difference  in  opinion  as  to  its  merits,  was  cer 
tainly  an  improvement  on  the  one  it  superseded. 
It  undoubtedly  was  the  best  attainable  for  En 
gland  at  that  time.  Such  a  simple  democratic 
Church  as  the  Kirk  of  Scotland  was  not  then  pos 
sible  among  the  aristocratic  English  people,  with 
their  strong  love  for  hoary  forms  and  ceremonies. 
Besides  too  great  a  departure  from  the  old  Church 

*  History  of  England,  Vol.  I. 


COVENANTERS    IN    SCOTLAND    AND    IRELAND.          21 

would  have  weakened  and  endangered  the  very 
existence  of  the  Kingdom,  by  dividing  both  the 
Clergy  and  the  nobility,  on  whose  support  the 
government  rested  for  security. 

The  reigns  of  James  I  and  Charles  I  were  marked 
by  constant  acts  of  perfidy  and  persecution  against 
the  Scottish  people.  Each  of  these  •  monarchs 
claimed  to  be  the  head  of  the  Scottish  Church,  Avith 
the  power  to  appoint  Bishops  and  regulate  all  ec 
clesiastical  affairs.  Their  object  was  to  overthrow 
Presbyterian  ism  in  Scotland,  and  to  establish  in 
its  place  the  Anglican  Church.  Under  the  direc 
tion  of  Charles  I  a  book  of  canons  and  liturgy 
was  prepared  for  use  there.  Every  minister  was 
required  to  adhere  to  the  prescribed  forms,  under 
pain  of  expulsion.  In  this  great  emergency  the 
people  rose  in  defense  of  their  religion.  Ministers 
and  noblemen  sent  petitions  to  the  King,  entreat 
ing  him  to  suspend  the  use  of  the  liturgy.  Crowds 
of  people  flocked  to  Edinburgh  to  learn  the  King's 
answer.  Instigated  by  the  Prelate  Laud,  he  an 
swered  by  commanding  instant  obedience  to  the 
requirements  of  the  service  book,  and  by  de 
nouncing  all  dissent  as  treason. 

The  Presbyterians  realized  that  a  great  crisis 
had  now  arrived;  they  must  resist,  or  give  up  their 
religion,  and  bow  to  the  yoke  of  a  tyrant.  They 


22  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

were  prompt  to  decide.  They  determined  to  re 
new  the  old  "-National  League  and  Covenant" 
of  1551.  At  daybreak  on  the  appointed  day, 
Grey  Friars  Church  and  Church-yard,  in  Edin 
burgh,  were  filled  with  Scotland's  nobility  and 
peasantry.  After  an  earnest  prayer  by  Hender 
son,  Johnstone,  in  a  clear  voice,  read  the  covenant. 
"  We  promise  and  swear,"  ran  this  solemn  instru 
ment  at  its  close,  u  by  the  great  name  of  the  Lord 
our  God,  to  continue  in  the  profession  and  obe 
dience  of  the  said  religion  ;  and  that  we  shall  de 
fend  the  same,  and  resist  all  their  contrary  errors 
and  corruptions,  according  to  our  vocation,  and  to 
the  utmost  of  that  power  which  God  has  put  in 
our  hands,  all  the  days  of  our  life." 

The  venerable  Earl  of  Sutherland  was  the  first 
to  come  forward  and  put  his  hand  to  this  solemn 
pledge ;  the  others  followed.  When  all  in  the  Church 
had  signed  it,  it  was  taken  to  the  church-yard  and 
spread  on  a  grave-stone,  where  the  vast  crowd 
hastened  to  sign  it.  The  next  day  three  hundred 
ministers  affixed  their  names  to  the  Covenant. 
Copies  were  made,  and  nobles  and  gentlemen,  and 
ministers  and  peasants  rode  with  rapid  speed  over 
Scotland  to  procure  signatures.  Thus  the  Presby 
terians  of  Scotland  achieved  the  immortal  name  of 
Covenanters. 


COVENANTERS    IN    SCOTLAND    AND    IRELAND.          23 

The  "Bishop's  War"  followed.  Twice  the 
King's  armies  were  led  into  Scotland,  and  twice 
they  were  defeated  and  driven  back  in  confusion. 
Charles  II  renewed  the  effort  to  establish  Epis 
copacy.  Under  the  influence  of  Sharp,  a  cruel 
tyrant,  who  had  been  made  Archbishop,  an  edict 
was  made,  commanding  all  Presbyterian  ministers 
to  submit  to  the  Bishops,  or  be  expelled  from  their 
charges.  Soldiers  were  poured  into  Scotland  to 
enforce  obedience.  The  Covenant  was  burned  by 
the  common  hangman.  On  a  dreary  winter  Sab 
bath  nearly  four  hundred  ministers,  amid  the 
tears  of  their  congregations,  preached  their  sad, 
farewell  sermons.  The  next  day  they  were  fu 
gitives  in  the  snow-clad  mountains.  They  were 
hunted  out  in  their  secret  concealments  like  wild 
beasts,  and  their  faithful  followers  shot  down  in 
cold  blood,  or  tortured  and  mutilated. 

In  1666,  despair  drove  the  people  to  arms  on  the 
Pentland  Hills.  The  battle  lasted  till  evening, 
when  the  famished  peasants  fled.  New  persecu 
tions  followed.  The  penalty  of  death  wras  pro 
nounced  on  all  who  should  preach  in  the  open  air, 
or  attend  such  meetings. 

James  II,  on  coming  to  the  throne,  <ehunted 
down  the  scattered  remnants  of  the  Covenanters," 
says  Macaulay,  u  with  a  barbarity  of  which  no 


24  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

Prince  of  modern  times,  Philip  the  Second  alone 
excepted,  had  ever  shown  himself  capable."* 

But  preaching  still  went  on.  In  the  wild  re 
cesses  of  the  mountains,  the  Covenanters  still  se 
cretly  assembled,  still  prayed,  still  worshiped.  The 
merciless  Claverhouse,  with  his  fierce  dragoons, 
was  ever  on  their  track.  With  blood-hounds  and 
baying  dogs,  they  were  hunted  out  of  their  hidden 
retreats.  A  body  of  Highlanders,  more  savage 
and  alert  than  the  blood-hounds,  was  brought  down 
to  aid  in  ferreting  out  the  fugitives. f 

*  On  an  old  weather-beaten  stone  in  Grey  Friars  Church 
yard,  in  Edinburgh,  it  is  stated  that,  "from  May  17,"  HMl, 
when  the  most  noble  Marquis  of  Argyle  was  beheaded,  to  the 
17th  "of  February,  1683,  when  Mr.  James  Warwick  suffered, 
were  one  way  and  another  murdered  and  destroyed  for  the 
same  cause  about  eighteen  thousand."  This  was  only  about 
one-fourth  of  the  time  the  struggle  lasted. 

t  During  three  months  they  enjoyed  every  license.  Eight 
thousand  armed  Highlanders,  invited  by  the  British  Govern 
ment,  and  receiving  indemnity  beforehand  for  every  excess, 
were  left  to  work  their  will  upon  the  towns  and  villages  of 
Western  Scotland.  They  spared  neither  age  nor  sex.  They 
deprived  the  people  of  their  property ;  they  even  stripped 
them  of  their  clothes,  and  sent  them  out  naked  to  die  in  the 
fields.  Upon  many  they  inflicted  the  most  horrible  tortures. 
Children  torn  from  their  mothers  were  foully  abused ;  while 
both  mothers  and  daughters  were  subjected  to  a  fate,  com 
pared  to  which  death  would  have  been  a  joyful  alternative. — 
Buckle,  Vol.  II,  226. 


COVENANTERS    IN    SCOTLAND    AND    IRELAND.          25 

But  all  through  their  trials  they  remained  true 
to  their  solemn  Covenant.  Perhaps  no  people  in 
Europe  so  universally  accepted  the  doctrines  of 
the  Reformation  as  the  Lowlanders  of  Scotland. 
They  were  Presbyterians  of  the  strictest  faith. 
They  felt  the  vengeance  of  Laud  and  the  raging 
fury  of  Claverhouse.  Sometimes,  driven  to  des 
peration,  they  flew  to  arms,  with  no  weapons  but 
farm  implements,  and  with  no  leaders  but  religious 
enthusiasts,  only  to  encounter  fresh  persecutions. 
Loudon  Hill  attested  their  bravery  and  their  tri 
umph,  and  Bothwell  Bridge  witnessed  their  defeat 
and  slaughter. 

In  1688,  the  yellow  banner  of  William  II,  the 
mild  Protestant  Prince  of  Orange,  floated  over 
Scotland,  and  gave  peace  and  security  to  its  weary, 
faithful  people.  The  national  Covenant  had  been 
kept,  and  a  legacy  of  civil  and  religious  liberty 
had  been  secured,  not  alone  for  Scotland,  but  for 
all  mankind.  On  all  struggling  people,  like  the 
dew  of  Ilermon,  has  descended,  and  still  descend, 
the  blessings  of  the  Covenant.  The  contest  con 
tinued,  with  short  respites,  more  than  a  hundred 
years.  The  final  great  conflict,  the  fiercest  and 
the  cruelest,  lasted  uninterruptedly  for  twenty- 
eight  years. 
2 


26  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

From  this  school  of  trial  came  forth  that  long 
list  of  scholars,  poets,  philosophers,  divines,  and 
historians  who  have  made  Scotland  so  illustrious. 
The  national  spirit  was  exalted  by  suffering.  The 
national  intellect  was  quickened  and  kindled  into 
a  blaze  of  intensity.  Great  intellectual  lights  shot 
up  every-where.  During  this  long  struggle,  many 
of  her  people  passed  over  into  Ireland,  and  settled 
there.  Some  had  been  banished;  some  sent  to  the 
"Plantations"  and  sold  into  slavery;  and  others, 
to  avoid  persecution,  had  voluntarily  emigrated  to 
the  Colonies.  It  was  in  the  tribulations  and  con 
flicts  to  which  I  have  referred  that  the  hardy  and 
robust  Scotch-Irish  colonists  were  formed  and 
molded  into  their  heroic  proportions. 

I  now  turn  to  Ireland.  During  the  reign  of 
James  I,  a  part  of  the  Irish  nobles  had  rebelled 
against  his  authority,  and,  after  reducing  them  to 
submission,  he  declared  their  lands  forfeited  to  the 
Crown.  On  these  lands  he  planted  a  Scotch  and 
an  English  Colony.  The  legion  to  which  these 
colonists  went  was  wild  and  desolate,  having  been 
wasted  by  wars  and  forays.  They  found  it  a 
desert,  arid  made  it  a  garden  of  fertility  and  pro 
ductiveness.  By  industry  and  frugality  they  be 
came  prosperous,  and  soon  gathered  around  their 
little  homes  the  comforts  and  many  of  the  luxuries 


COVENANTERS    IN    SCOTLAND    AND    IRELAND.          27 

of  the  age.  They  were  a  brave,  austere,  self-poised 
race,  No  danger  could  daunt  them ;  no  earthly 
power  subdue  their  stubborn  wills  or  swerve  them 
from  the  path  of  duty.  Their  Presbyterianism 
founded  on  conviction  had  been  confirmed  by  per 
secution.  It  was  a  part  of  their  very  being. 

The  Episcopal  form  of  worship  was  the  estab 
lished  religion  in  Ireland.  The  country  was  under 
the  domination  of  the  English  Church.  The  na 
tives  were  Catholics.  When  the  Covenanters, 
however,  first  came  to  Ireland,  their  religious 
scruples  were  respected.  But,  soon,  the  Bishops 
began  to  suspend  Presbyterian  ministers  from  their 
functions.  "All  who  refused  to  obey  the  Bishops, 
and  to  introduce  and  use  the  liturgy,  were  deprived 
of  their  cures."  Numbers  of  ministers  were 
arrested  and  imprisoned  for  non-conformity.  In 
Ulster  alone  sixty-one  ministers  were  deposed, 
their  pulpits  declared  vacant,  and  curates  sent  in 
some  cases  to  take  possession  of  them.  The  Bishops 
insisted  that  no  minister  should  officiate  unless  he 
had  been  ordained  by  them.  In  some  parts  of 
Ulster,  the  people  were  not  permitted  to  bury  their 
dead  unless  an  Episcopal  clergyman  officiated  and 
read  the  burial  service  of  that  Church.  Efforts  were 
made  to  prohibit  the  Presbyterian  ministers  from 
celebrating  the  rite  of  marriage  among  their  own 


28  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

people.  Private  members  were  subjected  to  perse 
cution  in  the  ecclesiastical  courts.  A  law  for  the 
"suppression  of  popery"  was  turned  against  the 
Presbyterian  dissenters.  Froude  says :  "  The 
Bishops  fell  on  the  grievance  which  had  so  long 
afflicted  them  of  the  Presbyterian  marriages." 
Dissenting  ministers  "  were  unsanctified  upstarts, 
whose  pretended  marriage  ceremonial  was  but  a 
license  for  sin."  It  was  announced  that  the  chil 
dren  of  Protestants  not  married  in  a  Church  should 
be  treated  as  bastards,  and  many  persons  of  un 
doubted  reputation  were  prosecuted  in  the  Bishop's 
Courts  as  fornicators." 

With  a  strange  fatuity,  the  British  Parliament 
imposed  grievous  restrictions  on  the  trade  of  the 
Irish  Colonists,  which  threatened  their  industrial 
enterprises  with  ruin.  To  add  to  the  many  wrongs 
under  which  they  suffered,  as  their  leases  expired 
the  landlords  commenced  demanding  higher  rents. 
Often  these  amounted  to  little  less  than  legalized 
robbery. 

It  mattered  not  that  these  men  had  saved  Lon 
donderry  to  the  Crown,  after  enduring  sufferings 
such  as  scarcely  have  a  parallel  in  history.  It  mat 
tered  not  that  at  the  great  battle  of  the  Boyne 
they  had  risked  their  lives,  and  many  of  them  had 
poured  out  their  blood  for  that  government  which 


COVENANTERS   IN   SCOTLAND   AND   IRELAND.          29 

now  planted  its  iron  heel  upon  their  necks.  No 
tie  of  gratitude  availed  against  the  rapacity  of 
English  landlords;  no  sense  of  shame  or  remorse 
against  Church  bigotry. 

Wronged  by  the  Church,  and  stung  with  indig 
nation  at  the  perfidy  arid  the  ingratitude  of  the 
British  Government,  at  last  the  patience  of  the 
Covenanters  was  exhausted.  They  determined  to 
seek  homes  in  the  wilderness  beyond  the  Atlantic 
uin  a  country  where  the  long  arm  of  prelacy  was 
too  short  to  reach  them."  When  we  recall  how 
prompt  to  resist  oppression  the  ancestors  of  these 
men  had  been  in  Scotland,  how  ready  they  were, 
afterward,  in  the  colonies,  to  fly  to  arms  against 
little  more  than  merely  menaced  wrongs,  we  are 
amazed  at  the  patience  with  which  they  endured 
their  multiplied  grievances  in  Ireland  for  one  hun 
dred  years.  God  had  not  yet  turned  their  hearts 
to  war,  but  held  them  in  check,  reserving  their 
courage  for  a  larger  theater  and  one  of  brighter 
hope  and  wider  usefulness. 

The  influence  exerted  on  the  thought  and  mind 
of  the  world  by  the  Scotch  Covenanters  has  never 
been  fully  appreciated.  .  Theirs  was  the  first  great 
revolution  in  Europe  resulting  in  the  complete  in 
dependence  of  religious  thought  and  conduct. 
Protestantism,  though  heroically  struggling  for 


30  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

the  same  object,  had  not  yet  triumphed  in  the 
Netherlands.  In  England,  the  spirit  of  religious 
liberty  was  still  in  its  cradle,  and  had  not  assumed 
a  definite  form.  There  w.ere  many  bold  and  ad 
vanced  thinkers,  but  no  unity  of  action,  no  organ 
ized  movement  in  that  direction.  The  evidences 
of  a  coming  revolution  were  plainly  visible  in  the 
wide  discontent  which  prevailed  against  the  uni 
versal  corruption  and  immorality  in  the  Church 
and  among  the  ecclesiastics;  but,  except  in  indi 
vidual  cases,  it  did  not  manifest  itself  openly. 

Let  it  be  kept  in  mind  that  this  was  eighty  years 
before  the  great  revolution  in  England,  in  which, 
during  its  progress,  the  Puritans  (who  became 
Presbyterians)  and  the  Independents,  or  Separatists, 
first  became  a  mighty  force  in  the  State.  They 
existed  before,  but  only  in  an  unorganized  form. 
The  consummation  of  this  revolution,  in  Scotland, 
through  the  agency  of  the  Covenanters,  took 
place,  let  it  again  be  recalled,  sixty  years  before 
the  landing  of  the  Mayflower  on  our  shores,  and 
sixtjr-eight  years  before  the  Puritans  settled  at 
Salem. 

In  an  age  and  at  a  time  when  the  human   mind 

o 

and  conscience  were  just  awaking  from  the  deadly 
lethargy,  caused  by  bigotry  and  priestly  supersti 
tion,  into  a  dim  perception  of  the  great  religious 


COVENANTERS    IN    SCOTLAND    AND    IRELAND.          31 

and  political  truths  established  in  Scotland,  that 
event  must  have  had  a  powerful  quickening  influ 
ence  every-where. 

Many  authorities  and  facts  might  he  given  in 
proof  of  this  statement,  but  I  cite  only  a  few. 

"The  Scotch  Puritans" — Covenanters — "exer 
cised  a  marked  influence  both  on  their  brethren  in 
England  and  upon  those  in  America,  second  only 
to  that  exerted  by  the  Puritans  of  the  Nether 
lands."* 

"  Many  causes  co-operated-  to  bring  about  this 
great  result" — that  is,  the  overthrow  of  the  claim 
of  the  divine  right  of  Kings — "but  it  should  never 
be  forgotten  that  the  first  blows  of  the  conflict 
were  struck  by  Scottish  arms,  and  that  the  princi 
ples  contended  for  in  England  had  been  proclaimed 
by  the  bold  preachers  of  Scotland  for  more  than 
half  a  century."f 

"  This  action"— the  attempt  of  Charles  I  to  force 
a  liturgy  on  Scotland — "resulted  in  the  war  which, 
subsequently  taken  up  by  the  English,  ended  in 
the  Commonwealth,  and  the  establishment  of  Pres- 
byterianism  in  England."  J 

"  The  English,  left  to  themselves,  probably  would 
never  have  thought  of  such  a  departure" — that  is, 

*  Campbell's  Puritan,  Vol.  II,  2.  t  Id.  15. 

t  Id.  32,  note. 


32  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND   PURITAN. 

the  abolition  of  Bishops  and  of  the  Episcopacy — 
"but  they  had  on  one  side  Scotland  with  its  Pres 
byterian  Kirk;  on  the  other  side,  although  far 
away,  was  Geneva  with  the  same  system,  and 
nearer  home  was  Holland."* 

"Nothing  but  the  rebellion  in  Scotland" — in 
1640 — "incited  by  his" — Charles' — "ecclesiastical 
innovations  frustrated  his  schemes  upon  Amer 
ica" — that  is,  to  crush  out  all  the  independent 
sects  in  the  American  Colonies,  and  to  abolish  all 
the  Colonial  Charters — "  at  a  time  when  all  En 
gland  lay  cowering  under  his  tyranny.  This  is 
the  first  debt  of  America  to  Scotland. "f  "James 
drove  out  of  Scotland  many  of  the  leading  minis 
ters.  They  took  refuge  in  England,  to  disseminate 
there  the  doctrines  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
standing  above  the  State,  and  in  time  their  teach 
ings  developed  into  action." 

Says  Macaulay:  "To  this  step" — to  force  the 
liturgy  on  Scotland — "our  country  owes  her  free 
dom.  The  first  performance  of  the  foreign  cere 
monies  produced  a  riot.  The  riot  rapidly  became 
a  revolution.  .  .  .  The  whole  nation  was  in 
arms.  The  example  of  Scotland  spread  to  En- 


*  Campbell's  Puritan,  Vol.  II,  168. 

t  Id.  473,  note,  citing  Doyle's  Puritan,  Vol.  I,  197. 


COVENANTERS   IN   SCOTLAND   AND   IRELAND.         33 

land,  and  in  the  revolution  which  followed  Charles 
lost  his  bead."* 

We  have  thus  ?een  that  the  Scottish  Covenant 
ers,  under  the  lead  of  John  Knox,  not  only  se 
cured  for  themselves  political  and  religious  liberty, 
but  that  their  example  and  teachings  exerted  a 
mighty  influence  in  England  as  well  as  in  America. 

The  Scottish  people  were  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  for  the  most  part  rude  and  ignorant, 
but  not  more  so  than  their  kinsmen  in  England. 
Knox  was  the  friend  of  education,  and  believed 
that  it  was  the  highest  safeguard  of  the  Protestant 
religion.  Through  his  influence  schools  were 
generally  established  througbout  the  kingdom. f 
When  he  passed  away  in  1572,  Andrew  Melville 
took  up  his  work  and  pushed  it  forward.  As 
principal,  he  reformed  the  University  of  Glasgow, 
then  well-nigh  broken  up,  and  placed  it  on  so  high 
a  basis  of  learning  that  it  attracted  students  from 
other  parts  of  Europe  to  enjoy  its  advantages.  A 
few  years  later,  be  in  the  same  way  rejuvenated 
the  University  of  St.  Andrews.  Through  these 
great  seats  of  learning,  the  way  was  paved  for  the 


*  Macaulay's  History  of  England,  Vol.  I,  73. 
t  Campbell,  Vol  I,  19,  note. 


34  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    ANL    PURITAN. 

splendid  learning  which  has  since  distinguished  the 
scholars  of  Scotland. 

During  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary,  a  stat 
ute  was  passed  by  the  Scotch  Parliament  for  the 
establishment  of  common  schools  in  every  parish, 
to  be  supported  in  part  by  the  parish  and  in  part 
by  rate  bills.*  "  Before  one  generation  had  passed 
away,"  says  Macaulay.,  "  it  began  to  be  evident 
that  the  Common  people  of  Scotland  were  superior 
in  intelligence  to  the  Common  people  of  any  other 
Country  in  Europe."  Again  he  says:  "In  men 
tal  cultivation,  Scotland  had  an  undisputable  su 
periority.  Though  that  kingdom  was  then  (1603) 
the  poorest  in  Christendom,  it  already  vied  in 
every  branch  of  learning  with  the  most  favored 
countries. f 

llamerton  says:  "  In  proportion  to  their  small 
numbers,  they  (the  Scotch)  are  the  most  distin 
guished  little  people  since  the  days  of  the  ancient 
Athenians,  and  the  most  educated  of  the  modern 
races.  All  the  industrial  arts  are  at  home  in  Glas 
gow,  all  the  fine  arts  in  Edinburgh,  and  as  for 
literature  it  is  every- where."  J 

Says  Lecky  :     "  Schools  diffused  the  benefits  of 

*  Macaulay's  History,  Vol.  IV,  704. 

t  Macaulay's  History,  Vol.  I,  51;  Campbell,  Vol.  I,  19,  note. 

}  French  and  English,  437. 


COVENANTERS    IN    SCOTLAND    AND    IRELAND.          35 

knowledge  thoughoiit  the  kingdom,  and  made  the 
average  level  of  Scotch  intelligence  superior  to  any 
part  of  the  empire."  * 

The  foundation  of  the  splendid    university  edu- 

*  Lecky,  Vol.  TI,  45. 

A  confirmation  of  what  is  said  in  the  foregoing  chapter  in 
reference  to  the  educational  advantages  of  the  Scottish  people 
is  found  in  a  recent  article  by  Rev.  D.  M.  Ross,  M.A.,  on  Dr. 
John  Watson — "  Ian  McClaren."  He  tells  how  the  latter, 
when  starting  in  the  ministry,  deliberately  gave  up  a  position 
in  one  of  the  largest  and  most  influential  congregations  in 
Edinburgh,  and  accepted  a  call  to  a  hamlet  "  lying  on  the  slope 
of  the  Southern  spurs  of  the  Grampian  Mountains,  on  the  edge 
of  a  waste  of  heathery  hill  and  moorland  given  over  to  sheep 
and  grouse  and  wild  fowl."  The  parish  contained  less  than 
six  hundred  souls,  and  the  Free  Church  congregation,  to  which 
"  Ian  McClai'en  "  went,  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  per 
sons,  young  and  old.  But  these  plain  people  were  an  intelli 
gent,  an  educated  people,  as  their  fathers  had  been  from  the 
days  of  John  Kiiox.  Mr.  Ross  says  : 

"The  members  of  his  congregation  were  humble  folk— the 
school-master,  the  shop-keeper,  the  joiner,  the  smith,  and  other 
tradesmen  of  the  village,  a  few  crofters,  several  not  too  com 
fortable  farmers,  with  their  shepherds  and  plowmen.  But 
thanks  to  the  parish  schools — including  the  Free  Church 
School— which  Scotland  owes  to  the  noble  educational  en 
thusiasm  of  her  greatest  ecclesiastical  statesman,  John  Knox, 
the  humblest  of  them,  and  their  ancestors  for  generations  be 
fore  them  had  received  an  education  which  had  raised  them 
far  above  the  level  of  "  Hodge"  of  the  English  Counties.  Be 
sides,  the  democratic  Constitution  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 


36      COVENANTED,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

cation  of  Scotland  was  laid  as  far  back  as  1410, 
when  the  University  of  St.  Andrews  was  estab 
lished,  and  in  1450,  when  that  of  Glasgow  had  its 
beginning.  That  of  Aberdeen  was  established  in 
1495.  Grammar  schools  were  established  also  in 
all  burgh  corporations.  The  law  of  the  Scotch 
Parliament  in  1496  required  all  barons  and  free 
holders  of  substance  to  send  their  eldest  sons  to 
grammar  schools  until  they  were  competent  Latin 
scholars,  and  then  for  three  years  to  "schules  of 
art  and  jure."  *  And,  after  the  rebellion  of  1640, 
parochial  schools  were  established  throughout 
Scotland  under  the  direct  supervision  of  the 
Kirk  after  the  model  of  those  of  Geneva.  The 
Covenanter  Clergy  throughout  the  Kingdom  aided 
in  this  great  work,  as  they  afterward  did,  in  estab 
lishing  schools  in  the  Colonies. f 

When  the  Covenanters,  on  the  invitation  of 
James  I,  settled  in  Ireland  (a  good  many,  however, 
had  gone  over  previous  to  this  time),  they  tooiv 
with  them  the  education  and  the  religion  as  well 
as  the  thoughts  and  manners  of  Scotland.  They 
established  schools  for  the  education  of  their  chil- 


had  afforded  in  itself  an  educational  discipline  for  the  mem 
bers  of  its  Congregations."— McClure's  Magazine,  October,  1896. 

*  Lecky,  Vol.  II,  47. 

t  The  Scotch-Irish  in  America,  Vol.  I,  92. 


I  COVENANTERS    IN    SCOTLAND    AND    IRELAND.  37 

dren,  as  well  as  churches.  The  sons  of  the  well- 
to-do  and  the  wealthy  were  sent  to  Dublin,  to 
Glasgow,  or  to  Edinburgh,  to  be  trained  in  these 
Universities.  Common  schools  were  provided  for 
those  who  were  not  able  to  attend  the  Universities. 
So,  it  came  to  pass,  that  in  point  of  education  and 
intelligence,  the  Scotch  Colonists,  in  Ireland,  were 
superior  to  the  English.  No  Presbyterian  could 
obtain  a  license  to  preach  until  he  had  studied 
theology  for  four  years,  besides  his  regular  course 
in  college.* 

The  Covenanters  were  a  frugal  and  an  indus 
trious  people.  The  province  of  Ulster  where  they 
settled  soon  became  the  most  prosperous  portion 
of  Ireland.  The  contrast  between  it  and  the 
English  and  the  native  Irish  settlements  was 
marked,  showing  the  superior  intelligence  and 
industry  of  the  Scotch. 

When  the  Covenanters  were  gradually  driven 
out  of  Ireland  by  persecution,  between  the  years 
1700  and  1775  and  came  to. the  Colonies,  their  first 
care  in  their  new  homes,  after  securing  religious 
privileges,  was  to  provide  for  the  education  of  their 
children.  In  every  neighborhood,  where  it  was 
possible,  in  which  they  settled  they  established 
schools.  Their  ministers  were  all  educated  up  to 

*  Scotch  and  Irish  Seed  in  American  Soil,  260, 


38  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

the  highest  standard  of  the  best  Universities  of 
Europe.  Most  of  them,  perhaps  nearly  every  one 
of  them,  became  teachers  in  Colleges,  Academies 
or  Common  Schools.  The  salaries  paid  for  preach 
ing  were  generally  grossly  inadequate  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  their  families.  To  supplement 
this  scanty  income  by  what  could  be  gained  by 
teaching  a  school,  often  in  the  minister's  own 
house,  was  generally  an  absolute  necessity.  The 
Church  also  urged  upon  the  ministers  the  necessity 
of  encouraging  education,  as  the  bulwark  of  re 
ligion  as  well  as  of  the  State.  Besides,  there  were 
in  those  days,  as  in  later  days,  professional  teachers 
who  went  from  neighborhood  to  neighborhood  in 
pursuit  of  their  calling.  Few  persons  living  in  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  not  met, 
especially  in  the  country,  one  or  more  of  these 
Scotch,  or  Scotch -Irish  itinerant  teachers,  always 
strict,  always  faithful,  always  well  educated,  going 
from  neighborhood  to  neighborhood  in  his  life 
vocation. 

Rev.  Dr.  Craighead  in  his  admirable  little  book, 
"  Scotch  and  Irish  Seeds  in  American  Soil,"  enu 
merates  twentv-eisrht  Colleges  and  Schools  started 

t/  O  ^ 

by  these  Covenanter  Ministers  during  the  eighteenth 
century,  in  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee, 


COVENANTERS    IN    SCOTLAND    AND    IRELAND.          39 

and  he  might  also  have  added  those  of  Kentucky. 
A  number  of  them,  though  started  as  private 
schools,  grew  in  the  course  of  time  into  great 
Colleges  of  the  widest  usefulness.  Such  was  the 
origin  of  Princeton;  of  Washington  College,  and 
of  Ilampden-Sydney,  Virginia;  of  Washington 
College,  and  of  Greenville  College,  Tennessee ; 
and  of  Delaware  College,  and  Jefferson  College, 
Pennsylvania.  But  those  mentioned  by  name  do 
not  constitute  one-tenth,  perhaps,  of  the  schools 
started  by  the  Covenanter  Presbyterian  ministers 
in  the  Colonies  south  of  New  England.  In  Scot 
land,  in  Ireland,  and  all  the  Colonies  where  they 
settled,  education  was  the  second  great  duty  and 
care  of  life.  The  Synod  of  Carolina,  at  an  early 
day,  instructed  the  Presbyteries,  under  its  charge, 
to  provide  for  a  Grammar  School  in  each  of  its 
bounds.  And  most  faithfully  did  these  earnest 
ministers  obey  the.  injunctions  laid  upon  them. 
For  nearly  a  century  before  the  Revolution  they 
conducted  most  of  the  classical  schools  south  of 
New  York.  They  gave  the  free  school  system  to 
New  Jersey,  and  promoted  the  cause  of  education 
every-where.* 

*  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  486. 

NOTE.  Some  parts  of  the  foregoing  chapter  were  taken,  with 
changes,  from  my  address  before  the  Scotch-Irish  Congress  at 
Louisville,  in  1891. 


40  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  COVENANTERS  IN  THE  REVOLUTION. 

The  term  Covenanter — What  it  signifies — Influence  of  Cove 
nanters  in  bringing  on  the  American  Revolution — Author 
ities  quoted  to  this  effect — Action  of  the  Presbyterian 
Synod  of  Philadelphia  in  1775— Action  of  Continental 
Congress,  July  8,  1775,  declaring  it  had  no  design  of  estab 
lishing  independent  States — Pastoral  letter  of  the  Synod — 
Covenanters  all  united  in  favor  of  Independence— Patrick 
Henry  sustained  by  Covenanters  in  Virginia— Action  of 
the  people  on  the  Hoiston  in  Fincastle  County— Rev. 
Charles  Cummings,  Colonel  Wm.  Campbell,  Colonel  Ar 
thur  Campbell,  and  others  on  the  remote  frontier  declare 
for  Independence  —  Augusta  County  —  Covenanters  of 
Worcester  County,  Mass.— Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  op 
pose  Independence — Public  meeting  in  Philadelphia — 
Overthrow  of  the  Proprietary  Government— Covenanters 
in  Pennsylvania— The  situation  of  Continental  Congress — 
Decisive  speech  of  John  Witherspoon  — Covenanters  fore 
most  in  fighting  battles  of  Revolution  in  Pennsylvania, 
Virginia,  and  South  Carolina— Episcopalians  in  the  Revo 
lution — Covenanter  Declaration  of  Independence  at  Meck 
lenburg — Battle  of  King's  Mountain — Influence  of  Cov 
enanters  in  framing  Constitution— Part  they  took  in  de 
fending  frontiers  in  the  Revolution — Its  far-reaching  im 
portance — Western  boundary  line. 

Having  described  the  origin  of  the  Covenanters 
and  their  religious,  educational,  and  political  char 
acteristics,  in  the  following  chapter  I  shall  attempt 


COVENANTERS  IN  THE  REVOLUTION.       41 

to  point  out  the  part  taken  by  this  people  in  the 
American  Revolution. 

Hereafter  I  shall  use  as  far  as  I  can  the  term 
"Covenanters"  instead  of  the  words  "Scotch- 
Irish."  This  I  do  because  that  term  is  more  defi 
nite  and  more  comprehensive.  Besides,  it  has  a 
clear  historic  origin  of  thrilling  dramatic  interest 

The  term  Scotch-Irish  is  restricted  in  its  appli 
cation,  and  not  altogether  clear  in  its  signification. 
By  the  term  Covenanters  is  meant  all  Scotch  Pres 
byterians,  and  their  descendants,  without  reference 
to  the  place  of  their  birth,  or  the  place  of  their 
sojourning,  who  settled  in  the  Colonies  or  in  the 
States,  previous  to  the  time  when  intermarriages 
with  other  sects  became  common.  By  reason  ot 
these  intermarriages,  the  term  ceased,  in  course  of 
time,  to  mean  both  a  race  and  a  sect,  and  came  to 
signify  only  a  race.  This  definition  will  not  only 
include  the  Scotch-Irish  and  their  descendants,  but 
Scotch  Presbyterians  also  and  their  descendants 
who  were  never  in  Ireland,  but  came  directly  from 
Scotland  or  from  other  quarters  to  the  Colonies. 
The  term  thus  understood  and  used  will  make  it 
unnecessary  hereafter  to  refer  to  the  Scotch-Irish 
or  to  the  Scotch  Presbyterians  separately. 

The  failure  to  find  a  term  comprehensive  enough 
to  cover  at  once  these  two  branches  of  the  Pres- 


42  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

byterian  family  doubtless  accounts  in  part  for  the 
failure  to  do  them  justice  in  comparing  their  work 
with  that  done  by  the  Puritans  and  the  Cavaliers. 
Scotch-Irish  and  Scotch  Presbyterians  have  had 
each  and  alone  to  bear  comparison  with  races  and 
forces  not  thus  divided  in  the  public  mind.  Under 
the  general  and  comprehensive  term  Covenanters, 
my  object  is  to  show  what  this  wonderful  Scotch 
people  has  done  for  the  cause  of  freedom,  religion, 
and  civilization  in  the  world,  and  especially  what 
it  has  done  in  our  own  country. 

Want  of  space  forbids  that  I  should  do  more 
than  glance  at  the  marked  influence  the  Cove 
nanters  exerted  in  bringing  on  the  Revolution, 
and  afterward  in  sustaining  it,  and  carrying  it  for 
ward  to  a  successful  termination.  The  oft-re 
peated  words  of  Mr.  Bancroft  may  be  appropri 
ately  quoted  at  this  point:  "The  first  voice  pub 
licly  raised  in  America  to  dissolve  all  connection 
with  Great  Britain  came  not  from  the  Puritans  of 
New  England,  nor  the  Dutch  of  New  York,  nor 
the  Planters  of  Virginia,  but  from  the  Scotch- 
Irish  Presbyterians." 

At  the  time  the  great  events  of  the  Revolution 
were  being  unfolded,  the  Covenanters  were  re 
garded  by  Tory  and  Episcopalian  writers  as  the 
chief  authors  of  these  revolutionary  movements. 


COVENANTERS  IN  THE  REVOLUTION.        43 

This  charge  was  brought  against  them  at  that  day. 
by  the  friends  of  royalty,  and  contemporaneous 
history  goes  far  toward  sustaining  the  truth  of  it. 

The  Hon.  Richard  Wright,  at  one  time  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Pennsylvania, 
an  Episcopalian  and  a  thoroughly  informed  histo 
rian  and  statesman,  declared  that:  "The  Ameri 
can  War  of  Independence  was  a  Presbyterian  and 
Scotch-Irish  War."* 

Mr.  Galloway,  a  prominent  advocate  of  the  old 
government,  ascribed  the  Revolution  mainly  to 
the  agitation  of  the  Presbyterian  Clergy  and  Laity, 
which  had  begun  as  early  as  1764.  Another  mon 
archist  of  the  same  period  wrote  thus:  "  You  will 
have  discovered  that  I  am  no  friend  of  the  Pres 
byterians,  and  that  I  fix  all  the  blame  of  these  ex 
traordinary  proceedings  on  them." 

"  Believe  me,  sir,  the  Presbyterians  have  been 
the  chief  and  principal  instruments  in  all  these 
flaming  measures;  and  they  always  have  and  ever 
will  act  against  government  from  that  restless  and 
turbulent  anti-monarchial  spirit  wrhich  has  always 
distinguished  them  every-where  when  they  had,  or 
by  any  means  could  assume,  power,  however  ille- 
gaily."  t 


*  The  Scotch-Irish  in  America,  Vol.  Ill,  135. 
t  Presbyterians  and  the  Revolution,  48. 


44  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

Dr.  Elliott,  editor  of  the  western  organ  of  the 
Methodist  Church,  concedes  that  a  The  Presby 
terians  of  every  class  were  prominent,  and  even 
foremost,  in  achieving  the  liberties  of  the  United 
States." 

Of  course  no  one  will  assume,  as  some  of  the 
writers  of  that  day  did,  that  all  the  credit  of 
bringing  on  the  Revolution  is  due  to  the  Cove 
nanters,  or  Presbyterians.  All  that  can  be  justly 
claimed  for  them  is  that  they  were  the  first  great 
body  of  men  to  agitate  that  question,  and  were 
the  most  thoroughly  united  in  its  favor. 

Mr.  Wilburn  F.  Reed,  of  Philadelphia,  an  Epis 
copalian,  bore  explicit  testimony  to  the  fact  that  the 
u  Connection  between  their  efforts  "  (those  of  the 
Presbyterians)  "  for  the  security  of  their  religious 
liberty,  and  opposition  to  the  oppressive  measures 
of  Parliament,  was  distinctly  seen"  at  the  time, 
and  was  often  "  made  a  ground  of  reproach " 
against  them. 

Again,  he  writes :  "A  Presbyterian  loyalist 
was  a  thing  unheard  of.  The  debt  of  gratitude 
which  independent  America  owes  to  the  dissenting 
clergy  and  laity  can  never  be  paid."* 

"  The  rigid  Presbyterians,"  writes  Mr.  Bancroft, 

*  Scotch-Irish  Seeds  in  American  Soil,  324. 


COVENANTERS  IN  THE  REVOLUTION.        45 

"  proved  in  America  the  supporters  of  religious 
freedom."  * 

"  Indeed,  so  prominent  and  conspicuous  was  the 
part  taken  by  Presbyterians,  as  individuals  and  as 
a  Church,  in  the  Eevolutionary  struggle  that  at  its 
close  rumors  were  rife  that  projects  were  on  foot 
to  make  Presbyterianism  the  religion  of  the  new 
"Republic."  t 

The  intention  of  establishing  Episcopacy  in  the 
Colonies  had  been  at  an  early  day  frequently 
avowed.  "Americans  in  England  were  openly 
told  that  Bishops  should  be  settled  in  America  in 
spite  of  all  Presbyterian  opposition."  J  It  was  in 
part  the  apprehension  of  this  calamity  that  united 
the  Covenanters,  as  well  as  the  Congregationalists 
of  Xew  England,  in  their  determined  opposition 
to  the  acts  of  the  British  Government,  prior  to  the 
Declaration  of  Independence. || 

It  was  proposed  to  introduce  Bishops  into 
America,  to  be  appointed  by  the  Government  as 
in  England.  Little  has  been  said  by  historians  on 
this  point,  and  yet  it,  more  than  nearly  any  thing 
else,  united  the  religious  sects  in  opposition  to  the 
English  Government.  John  Adams  said  that  "  it 


*  Presbyterians  and  the  Revolution,  56.  t  Id.  49. 

t  Proceedings  of  Scotch-Irish  Congress,  Vol.  VIII,  244. 
||  Scotch-Irish  Seeds  in  American  Soil,  320,  324. 


46  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

was  in  discussing  this  subject  that  the  Colonists  were 
first  led  to  question  the  supremacy  of  Parliament."  * 

On  June  4,  1774,  the  Covenanters  of  Hanover 
County,  Pennsylvania,  denounced,  in  a  public 
meeting,  the  action  of  Great  Britain  as  "  iniquitous 
and  oppressive,"  and  declared  that  in  the  event  of 
that  Government  "attempting  to  force  unjust 
laws  on  us  (them)  by  the  strength  of  arms,  our 
cause  we  leave  to  Heaven  and  our  rifles"  And  on 
June  10,  1774,  the  Covenanters,  at  Middleton,  in  a 
public  meeting,  indorsed  the  resolutions  previously 
adopted  by  the  people  of  Hanover. f 

On  the  6th  of  May,  1775,  the  Covenanters  of 
Western  Pennsylvania,  at  Hanastown,  in  West 
moreland  County,  and  those  of  Fort  Pitt  and 
Chester  Counties,  pledged  their  lives  and  their 
fortunes  in  favor  of  the  cause  of  the  Colonies  in 
resisting  the  oppression  of  the  English  ministry. 

In  New  York  there  was  an  organization  for 
promoting  the  cause  of  the  Colonies,  known  as  the 
"  Sons  of  Liberty."  This  was  called  the  "  Presby 
terian  Junta"  by  their  enemies. J 


*  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  490,  quoting  John  Adams.  England  in 
the  Eighteenth  Century,  135.  Lecky,  Vol.  Ill,  455. 

t  Proceedings  of  Scotch-Irish  Congress,  Vol.  VIII,  244. 

I  Scotch-Irish  in  America,  Vol.  Ill,  234.  Campbell,  Vol. 
II,  408. 


COVENANTERS  IN  THE  REVOLUTION.       47 

Bancroft  says  that  the  first  suggestion  of  a  Con 
tinental  Congress,  to  consider  the  remedies  neces 
sary  for  the  grievances  of  the  Colonies,  came  from 
these  Covenanter  "Sons  of  Liberty." 

Mr.  Adolphus,  in  his  book  on  the  reign  of  George 
III,  ascribes  the  unity  of  sentiment  and  of  action 
in  the  Church,  and  the  momentum  given  to  the 
cause  of  Independence,  largely  to  the  establish 
ment  of  an  annual  synod  in  Philadelphia,  where 
says  he,  "  all  general  affairs,  political  as  well  as  re 
ligious,  were  debated  and  decided."  "  From  this 
synod  orders  and  decrees  were  issued  throughout 
America,  and  to  them  a  ready  and  implicit  obedi 
ence  Avas  paid."  "By  this  union  a  party  was  pre 
pared  to  display  their  power  by  resistance,  arid  the 
Stamp  Law  presented  itself  as  a  favorable  subject 
of  hostility."  * 

"  In  Virginia,"  says  Bancroft,  "  the  Presbytery 
of  Hanover  took  the  lead  for  liberty,  and  demanded 
the  abolition  of  the  establishment  of » the  Anglican 
Church  and  the  civil  equality  of  ever}7  denomina 
tion."  f 

"  Our  mother  should  remember  that  we  are  not 
slaves,"  said  the  Presbyterians  of  Philadelphia.! 

But,  perhaps,  the  most  powerful  influence  given 


*  Scotch  and  Irish  Seeds,  etc.,  322. 

t  Presbyterians  and  the  Revolution,  57.  t  Id.  53. 


48  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

to  the  cause  of  the  Revolution  was  the  action  of 
the  Presbyterian  Synod  which  met  in  Philadelphia 
in  May,  1775.  That  was  the  largest  ecclesiastical 
hody  then  in  existence  in  the  Colonies.  Its  dele 
gates  represented  Churches  and  Presbyteries  from 
every  Colony,  and  spoke  for  the  largest  religious 
body  of  Christians  in  the  country.  Its  ministers 
were  in  learning  and  ability,  as  well  as  in  influence 
and  standing,  equal  to  any  similar  body  of  men  in 
the  world.  Back  of  them  was  as  powerful,  intel 
ligent,  and  as  determined  a  body  of  Christian  free 
men  as  existed  on  earth.  The  love  of  both  poli 
tical  and  religious  liberty  had  been  burned  into 
their  very  beings  by  centuries  of  wrongs  and  per 
secutions.  The  Continental  Congress  was  in 
session  in  Philadelphia  at  the  same  time  that  this 
great  ecclesiastical  body  met  there.  Many  of  our 
ablest  statesmen  and  most  ardent  patriots  had  not 
yet  resolved  on  the  last  great  step  of  separation 
from  the  mother  country.*  Neither  Washington, 
nor  Adams,  nor  Jefferson  was  prepared  for  it  at 
this  time. 

As  late  as  July,  1775,  Congress  sent  a  petition  to 
the  King,  which  was  signed  by  every  member  of 
that  body,  in  which  they  said  :  "  We  have  not 
raised  armies  with  the  ambitious  design  of  sepa- 

*  Presbyterians  and  the  Revolution,  136,  137. 


COVENANTERS    IN   THE    REVOLUTION.  49 

rating  from  Great  Britain  and  establishing  inde 
pendent  States."  * 

In  this  hour  of  doubt  and  peril,  the  famous 
Synod  of  Philadelphia  issued  a  pastoral  letter  to 
the  several  churches  scattered  from  New  Hamp 
shire  to  Georgia,  in  which  resistance  to  the  en 
croachments  of  the  Crown  was  in  substance  ad 
vised. 

This  letter  urged  the  members  of  the  Churches 
throughout  the  Colonies  "to  adhere  firmly "  to 
the  resolutions  of  Congress,  and  said  :  "  Let  it  be 
seen  that  they  are  able  to  bring  out  the  whole 
strength  of  this  vast  country  to  carry  them  into 
execution."  This  was  one  of  the  first  bodies  of 
men  to  take  so  open  a  stand  in  behalf  of  the  rights 
of  the  Colonies. f  This  letter  was  sent  to  the 
Legislature  of  every  Colony,  and  was  read  from 
every  Presbyterian  pulpit  in  the  land. 

The  influence  of  such  a  letter  upon  the  minds 
of  a  people  already  ripe  for  rebellion,  coming  on 
the  heels  of  the  news  of  the  battles  of  Lexington 
and  Concord,  was  all  powerful,  and  served  to  unite 
these  Sons  of  the  Covenanters  as  one  man  in  favor 
of  open  resistance. 

*  Proceedings  of  Congress,  June  and  July,  1775. 
t  Scotch  and  Irish  Seeds  in  American  Soil,  324. 

4 


50  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

This  Philadelphia  Synod  and  this  pastoral  letter 
were  regarded  by  Mr.  Adolphus  in  his  "  Reign  of 
George  III"  as  the  chief  cause  which  led  the 
Colonists  to  determine  on  resistance. 

Little  wonder  there  were  no  tories  among  these 

O 

people  in  the  great  struggle  which  followed.  All 
their  history,  traditions,  sufferings,  and  persecutions 
protested  against  such  a  thing.  Two  centuries  of 
wrong,  perfidy,  broken  faith,  and  oppression  pro 
tested  ;  the  memory  of  the  iron  hand  of  Prelacy 
and  Episcopacy  protested;  the  vision  of  a  coming 
hierarchy  seen  in  dim  outline,  such  as  they  had  fled 
from  and  escaped  in  Ireland,  protested — all  these 
earnestly  cried  aloud  against  the  possibility  of  a 
Covenanter  in  blood  being  false  to  his  country  in 
that  dark  hour  of  its  trial. 

The  preachers  of  this  faith,  from  the  days  of 
John  Knox  and  Andrew  Melville,  had  always  been 
in  the  habit  (for  their  political  and  religious  liber 
ties  had  been  wrapped  up  in  the  same  fate)  of  in 
structing  their  congregations,  on  occasions  of  great 
peril  and  trial,  as  to  their  duty  not  only  to  God, 
but  to  their  country  likewise.  We  can  easily  be 
lieve  those  earnest  men,  on  the  reading  of  that 
pastoral  letter  to  the  several  Churches  throughout 
the  Colonies,  improved  the  opportunity  by  preach 
ing  sermons  on  the  great  question  then  agitating 


COVENANTERS    IN   THE    REVOLUTION.  51 

the  whole  land.  Stirred  by  the  momentous  occa 
sion,  and  by  the  memory  of  past  bitter  wrongs,  we 
can  readily  imagine  that  they  poured  forth  from 
all  their  pulpits  torrents  of  fervid  and  patriotic 
eloquence,  which  fired  and  united  the  whole  Church 
as  one  man  in  favor  of  independence. 

Thus  the  whole  Covenanter-Presbyterian  popu 
lation  of  the  Colonies  was  ready  and  united  in 
purpose  when  the  supreme  trial  by  arms  came. 
As  the  great  events  preceding  the  conflicts  were 
developing  and  unfolding,  the  Covenanters  were 
every-where  active  in  shaping  and  crystallizing 
public  opinion  around  the  idea  of  resistance. 
Freely  and  gladly  they  sowed  the  seeds  of  the 
Revolution.  It  seems  strange  and  providential 
how  these  people  were  scattered  over  the  Colonies. 
They  were  not  needed  for  this  work  in  New  En 
gland,  for  the  Puritans  were  there.  But  in  New 
Jersey  and  Delaware  they  were  needed  as  mission 
aries  of  freedom ;  they  were  needed  also  in  Penn 
sylvania  among  the  Quakers,  and  in  the  Southern 
Colonies  among  a  people  traditionally  attached  to 
England  and  to  royalty.  And  where  they  were 
needed  in  the  fullness  of  time,  there  they  were 
found.  Any  one  who  may  have  lived  in  the  South 
in  1861  can  appreciate  the  vast  influence  which  may 
be  exerted  on  a  people,  in  times  of  civil  commo- 


52  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

tion,  by  bold  and  determined  leaders,  who,  seizing 
the  occasion  when  men  are  stirred  by  mighty 
questions,  lead  them  forward  to  open  revolution. 
But  here  was  a  powerful  race  of  religious  people, 
encouraged  by  their  ministers,  all  smarting  under 
recent  flagrant  wrongs,  and  all  animated  by  a  com 
mon  purpose  to  be  free.  They  all  moved  forward 
with  one  mind  toward  the  accomplishment  of  their 
desired  end. 

It  was  these  people  who  sustained  Patrick  Henry 
in  his  important  work  in  Virginia,  as  the  leader  of 
the  Revolutionary  movement  in  that  State.  Mr. 
Jefferson,  speaking  of  him  to  Mr.  Webster,  said: 
"  He  was  far  before  us  all  in  maintaining  the  spirit 
of  the  Revolution.  His  influence  was  most  ex 
tensive  with  the  members  from  the  upper  counties, 
and  his  boldness  and  their  votes  overawed  and 
controlled  the  more  cool,  or  the  more  timid,  aristo 
cratic  gentlemen  of  the  lower  part  of  the  State." 
That  is  to  say,  Mr.  Henry  was  sustained  by  the 
Covenanter  members  from  the  Valley  and  Pied 
mont  region,  which  had  been  settled  by  that  peo 
ple,  while  the  aristocratic  Cavalier  members  from 
the  eastern  part  of  Virginia  held  back.  They 
were  overawed  into  a  support  of  the  measures  pro 
posed  by  the  daring  of  the  great  Covenanter 


COVENANTERS   IN   THE    REVOLUTION.  53 

leader  and  his  brave  followers.*  "During  the  pe 
riod  between  this  date  (1765)  and  the  Revolution, 
Mr.  Henry,"  says  Alexander  H.  Everett,  in  his  life 
of  that  gifted  man,  "was  constantly  in  advance  of 
the  most  ardent  patriots.  He  suggested  and  car 
ried  into  effect,  by  his  immediate  personal  influ 
ence,  measures  that  were  opposed  as  premature 
and  violent  by  all  the  other  eminent  supporters  of 
the  cause  of  liberty." 

One  of  the  influences  back  of  Patrick  Henry, 
which  sustained  him  in  his  untiring  fight  for  lib 
erty,  and  which  overawed  the  aristocratic  members 
of  the  Eastern  Shore,  was  the  action  of  the  Cove 
nanter  people  of  Fincastle  County.  On  January 
20,  1775,  four  months  before  the  action  of  the 
people  of  Mecklenburg  County,  the  people  of  that 
remote  county,  through  their  chairman  and  minis 
ter,  the  Rev.  Charles  Cummings,  presented  an  ad 
dress  to  the  Continental  Congress,  in  which  they 
said  in  its  conclusion:  "We  declare  that  we  are 
deliberately  and  resolutely  determined  never  to 
surrender  them" — their  privileges  as  freemen — "  to 
any  power  on  earth  but  at  the  expense  of  our 
lives." 

This   patriotic   declaration   came   from   the    ex- 

*  Scotch-Irish  in  America,  Vol.  I,  118,  quoted  by  Wm.  Wirt 
Henry,  a  grandson  of  Patrick  Henry. 


54  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

treme  south-western  part  of  Virginia,  where  the 
waters  flow  westward  toward  the  Mississippi,  from 
Abingdon  (then  called  Wolf  Hill),  in  what  is  now 
Washington  County,  far  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  west 
of  the  Alleghanies,  and  over  four  hundred^  miles 
west  of  Williamsburg,  the  capital  of  the  Colony. 

In  this  remote  region  was  the  home  of  Colonels 
William  and  Arthur  Campbell,  and  then,  or  after 
ward,  of  the  Prestons.  And  to  that  settlement,  on 
the  Holston,  Colonel  William  Campbell,  in  1775, 
brought  home  from  Hanover  County  his  young 
and  beautiful  wife,  Elizabeth  Henry,  the  sister  of 
Patrick  Henry,  who  in  a  woman's  sphere  was  as 
remarkable  as  her  renowned  brother.  She  became 
the  ancestor  of  a  race  of  great  men.*  And  here 
the  brave  Covenanter  minister,  Charles  Cummings, 
the  pioneer  preacher  in  the  wilderness,  and  Col 
onels  William  Campbell,  Preston,  Christian,  Ar 
thur  Campbell,  William  Edmonson,  and  other 
leading  men,  put  forth  their  solemn  declaration 
that  they  were  resolved  to  "  live  as  freemen  "  or  to 
die  in  defense  of  "  liberty  and  loyalty."  f 

This  place,  too,  was  near  the  Watauga  settle 
ment,  at  that  time,  in  North  Carolina,  which  was 


*  W.  C.  Preston  was  her  grandson. 

t  King's  Mountain  and  its  Heroes,   381.     Sketch   of   Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Russell,  formerly  wife  of  William  Campbell,  10. 


COVENANTERS    IN   THE    REVOLUTION.  55 

afterward  the  rallying  and  the  starting  point  of  the 
celebrated  expedition  to  King's  Mountain  under 
Campbell,  Sevier,  and  Shelby. 

Again,  on  May  10,  1776,  a  memorial  was  pre 
sented  to  the  Virginia  Convention  from  the  citi 
zens  of  Augusta  County,  another  one  of  the  "  up 
country "  counties  peopled  by  the  Covenanters, 
representing  the  necessity  of  making  the  Confed 
eracy  of  the  United  Colonies  the  most  perfect,  in 
dependent,  and  lasting,  and  of  framing  an  equal, 
free,  and  liberal  government  that  may  bear  the  test 
of  all  future  ages.* 

The  first  town  in  the  Colonies  to  declare  for 
the  principles  afterward  incorporated  in  the  Dec 
laration  of  Independence  was  Mendon,  in  Wor 
cester  County,  Massachusetts,  in  1773. f  It  is  a 
singular  fact  that  early  in  the  eighteenth  century 
a  Covenanter  Colony  of  fifty  families  had  settled 
in  that  County.  While  we  do  not  know  with  cer 
tainty  who  were  the  movers  in  that  meeting,  it 
may  be  presumed  as  beyond  question,  judging  from 
their  history  every-where  in  the  Colonies,  that  the 
Covenanter  people  bore  a  principal  part  in  this 
declaration. J 


*  The  Scotch-Irish  in  America,  Vol.  I,  232,  233. 

t  Bryant's  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  Ill,  472. 

±  Scotch-Irish  in  America,  Vol.  I,  110. 


56  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

One  other  fact  as  to  the  influence  of  the  Cove 
nanters  in  bringing  on  the  Revolution,  I  shall 
mention.  Pennsylvania  was  at  that  time  the 
second  largest  of  the  Colonies  in  point  of  popula 
tion,  and  Philadelphia  the  second  largest  city. 
The  Quakers  controlled  both  the  City  and  the 
Colony.  The  proprietary  government  was  still  in 
their  hands.  Both  by  policy  and  religious  convic 
tion,  they  were  opposed  to  the  approaching  revolu 
tion  involving  as  it  did  a  resort  to  arms.  On  the 
news  of  the  action  of  Congress  of  the  15th  of  May, 
plainly  looking  to  separation  and  independence, 
the  Assembly,  acting  under  the  proprietary  gov 
ernment,  in  effect  instructed  its  delegates  in  Con 
gress  to  oppose  all  action  favorable  to  separation. 
This  was  the  work  of  the  Quakers.  On  the  20th 
of  May,  a  large  public  meeting  of  the  people  of 
Philadelphia  was  held  in  the  State  House  yard, 
which  declared  that  the  existing  government  (of 
that  colony)  was  no  longer  "competent  to  the  ex 
igencies  of  our  "  (their)  "  affairs,"  and  that  steps  be 
taken  at  once  to  organize  a  Provisional  Convention 
to  form  a  new  Government. 

Accordingly,  on  the  18th  of  June  a  "  confer 
ence "  of  delegates  from  every  county  in  the 
province  assembled  and  u  unanimously  declared 
in  that  public  manner,  in  behalf  of  themselves, 


COVENANTERS   IN    THE   REVOLUTION.  57 

and  with  the  approbation,  consent  and  authority 
of  their  constituents,  their  willingness  to  concur 
in  a  vote  of  the  Congress  declaring  the  United 
Colonies  free  and  independent  States."  *  Thus 
the  authority  of  the  Quakers  was  virtually  over 
thrown,  and  their  power  taken  away  by  this 
peaceable  revolution. 

The  most  numerous  people  in  Pennsylvania,  at 
that  time,  possibly  excepting  the  Quakers,  were  the 
Covenanters.  They  were  by  far  the  most  intel 
ligent,  the  boldest,  and  the  most  aggressive.  The 
question  as  to  the  independence  of  the  Colonies 
every-where  stirred  this  people.  We  can  there 
fore  easily  assume  that  it  was  this  people,  which 
by  its  bold  action  and  resolves,  at  this  critical 
moment,  when  the  Quakers  were  discouraging  the 
friends  of  liberty,  helped  to  strengthen  the  arms 
and  nerve  the  hearts  of  the  members  of  the  Con 
tinental  Congress.  And  never  were  help  and  en 
couragement  more  needed  than  at  that  time.  It 
is  a  well-known  fact  that  when  the  critical  hour 
came  for  signing  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
many  members  held  back  and  hesitated.  At  this 
momentous  hour,  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Wither- 
spoon,  a  distinguished  Covenanter,  President  of 

*  Bryant's  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  111,480;  Fiske, 
Vol.  I,  185,  186. 

5 


58  COVENANTOR,  CAVLIER   AND    PURITAN. 

Princeton  College,  and  a  lineal  descendant  of  John 

Knox,  arose  in  his  seat  and  said :  "  To   hesitate  at 

,  • 

this  moment  is  to  consent  to  our  slavery.  That 
noble  instrument  upon  your  table  .  .  .  should 
be  subscribed  this  very  moment  by  every  pen  in 
this  house.  He  that  will  not  respond  to  its  accents, 
and  strain  every  nerve  to  carry  into  effect  its  pro 
visions,  is  unworthy  the  name  of  freeman,  .  .  . 
and  although  these  gray  hairs  must  soon  descend 
into  the  sepulcher,  I  would  infinitely  rather  that 
they  should  descend  hither  by  the  hand  of  the 
executioner  than  desert  at  this  crisis  the  sacred 
cause  of  my  Country."*  Under  the  influence  of 
these  inspiring  \vords  and  lofty  sentiments  the  in 
strument  was  at  once  signed,  and  each  signature, 
though  written  in  some  cases  with  a  trembling 
hand,  made  the  signer  immortal.  Fourteen  of 
these  signers  were  of  Covenanter  blood,  \vhose 
ancestors  had  signed  the  "  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant"  of  Grey  Friars  Church,  one  hundred 
and  thirty-eight  years  before. 

In  sustaining  the  cause  of  independence,  and  in 
lighting  the  battles  of  the  Revolution,  no  people 
were  more  earnest,  more  courageous,  nor  con 
tributed  more  largely  to  final  success  than  the 

*  Scotch-Irish  in  America,  Vol.  II,  104;  Presbyterians  and 
the  Revolution,  163  ;  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  487. 


COVENANTERS    IN    THE    REVOLUTION.  59 

Covenanters.  "  It  is  a  fact  beyond  question," 
says  Plowden,  "  that  most  of  the  early  successes 
in  America  were  immediately  owing  to  the  vigor 
ous  exertions  and  prowess  of  the  Irish  immigrants" 
(the  Covenanters)  "  who  bore  arms  in  that  cause."* 
Ramsay,  the  historian  of  South  Carolina,  who  re 
sided  there  during  the  Revolution,  and  who  was  a 
member  of  the  Continental  Congress^  says:  "  That 
the  Irish  in  America"  (they  were  universally  called 
Irish,  and  not  Scotch-Irish,  or  Covenanters,  until 
recently)  "were  almost  to  a  man  on  the  side 
of  independence."  .  .  .  "  They  were  Presby 
terians,  and  therefore  mostly  Whigs."  "One  of 
the  clergymen  of  this  race  said  to  his  congregation 
that  he  was  sorry  to  see  before  him  so  many  able- 
bodied  men  when  the  country  needed  their  services 
at  Valley  Forge."  In  these  Presbyteries,  as  in 
those  of  New  England,  it  was  deemed  an  offense 
worthy  of  discipline  for  any  minister  to  exhibit 
British  sympathies."  f 

"  In  the  Colonial  wars  their  section" — the  Cove 
nanter  section  of  the  state — "  furnished  most  of 
the  soldiers  of  Virginia."  J  In  Pennsylvania,  says 
the  same  author,  the  Covenanters  "  stood  up  as  a 
unit  for  Independence,"  and  they  contributed  a 
majority  of  the  troops  that  the  Keystone  State 

*  Cited  by  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  491.          t  Id.  491.          Id.  488. 


60  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

furnished  to  the  Continental  army.  The  same 
story  held  true,  to  a  great  extent,  throughout  the 
whole  country  south  of  Pennsylvania.* 

Many  of  the  Episcopal  Clergy  sided  with  En 
gland  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  while  every 
Covenanter  preacher  was  an  ardent  whig  and 
patriot.f  . 

"  Those  of.  this  class  by  whom  it  "  (Episcopacy) 
"  was  favored  left  the  lighting  largely  to  the  dis 
senting  Immigrants  from  the  North  of  Ireland, 
who  were  only  too  happy  to  pay  off  a  portion  of 
the  debt  which  a  century  of  broken  faith  had 
heaped  up  against  their  English  oppressors."  J  It 
is  but  just  to  say,  however,  that  since  the  Revolu 
tion,  no  sect  has  been  truer  to  the  Country  or  more 
devoted  to  the  principles  of  civil  liberty  in  the 
United  States  than  the  Episcopalians.  It  is  not 
true  that  all  the  Episcopal  Clergymen  sided  with 
England  in  the  Revolutionary  struggle.  Many  of 
them  were  good  patriots. 

In  the  "University  of  Virginia  Magazine"  for 
April,  1894,  there  is  a  dispassionate  article  by  Mal- 


*  Campbell,  Vol.  IT,  490. 

t  All  or  nearly  all  of  Washington's  army  chaplains  were  dis 
senters,  and  throughout  the  war  he  attended  dissenting  ser 
vices.  Id.  491,  note. 

I  Id.  490,  notes. 


COVENANTERS   IN    THE    REVOLUTION.  61 

colm  Taylor  on  the  influence  of  the  Puritans  in 
the  Revolution,  which  touches  on  this  subject. 
He  says:  .  .  .  "Judge  Jones  used' the  terms 
Presbyterians  and  Episcopalians  as  almost  synony 
mous  with  rebel  and  loyalist.  This,  however,  was 
by  no  means  true.  There  were  many  Episco 
palians  in  both  the  North  and  South,  though  far 
more  numerous  in  the  South,  who  openly  favored 
independence,  and  included  in  their  number  not  a 
few  Episcopal  ministers.*  If  we  turn  from  the 
people  to  the  leaders  of  the  Revolution,  no  such 
distinction  can  be  traced.  Washington,  Jefferson, 
George  Mason,  and  many  others  were  not  in  sym 
pathy  with  Puritanism,  and,  although  the  first 
signals  for  the  conflict  were  given  by  the  Puritan 
leaders  of  New  England,  none  were  more  active, 
nor  had  greater  influence  in  promoting  it,  than  the 
Episcopalians  who  had  derived  their  ideas  of  lib 
erty,  not  from  fear  of  tyranny,  but  from  the  higher 
sentiments  of  that  philosophy  which  was  awakening 
a  new  feeling  throughout  Europe,  and  which  found 
a  violent,  but  premature  expression  in  the  French 
Revolution." 

It  should  excite  no  surprise  to  find   that   many, 
perhaps   a  majority,  of  the  Episcopalians  in  New 

*  History  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church,  by  Bishop  W. 
8.  Perry. 


62      COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

York  and  in  the  Southern  Colonies  were  loyalists. 
The  Church  of  England,  perhaps  even  more  than 
the  splendors  of  royalty,  held  them  by  the  tender- 
est  ties  of  love  and  reverence.  It  was  the  Church 
of  their  fathers,  and  for  it  many  of  them  had 
suffered.  The  members  of  the  English  Church  and 
faith  felt  no  grievance  from  that  source.  They 
saw  arrayed  against  the  government  and  the 
Church  their  old  enemies,  the  Covenanters  and  the 
Puritans.  Most  naturally  they  would  oppose  these, 
as  they  always  had  done.  Thus  the  two  antag 
onistic  elements  drifted  apart. 

It  is  easy  to  conceive  how  many  true  and  patriotic 
men  in  1775  and  1776  might  be  honestly  opposed 
to  separation  from  England.  Like  Mr.  Jefferson, 
they  may  very  sincerely  have  preferred  the  English 
government,  properly  limited,  to  any  other  in  the 
world.  The  establishment  of  a  new  government 
was  an  experiment.  The  wisest  forecast  could  not 
tell  how  it  would  turn  out.  Good  men  may  well 
have  hesitated  at  the  greatest  and  the  boldest  step 
ever  taken  by  a  people. 

Men  may,  and  do  often  conscientiously,  differ  in 
opinion  upon  vital  questions.  In  1861,  such  men 
as  General  Sam  Houston,  Mr.  James  L.  Pettigrew, 
the  noted  lawyer  of  South  Carolina,  John  Minor 
Botts,  and  Governor  William  B.  Campbell,  Justice 


COVENANTERS    IN    THE    REVOLUTION.  63 

John  Catron,  Return  J.  Meigs,  Hon.  John  Trimble, 
and  many  others,  all  distinguished  for  their  exalted 
virtues,  differed  from  a  vast  majority  of  the  people 
of  their  section  as  to  separation  from  the  national 
union.  Who  shall  say  that  these  men  were  not 
honest  in  their  course  ?  . 

Let  it  be  distinctly  understood  that  the  course 
of  the  Episcopalians  in  the  Revolution  is  not  re 
ferred  to  by  way  of  adverse  criticism,  but  only  for 
the  purpose  of  showing  how  important  the  services 
of  the  Covenanters  were  in  that  great  conflict  in 
maintaining  the  cause  of  Independence.  What 
ever  that  course  may  have  been,  the  Church  should 
not  be  held  to  a  strict  accountability  for  it,  since  it 
is  undeniably  true  that  it  is  to-day  as  faithful  to  the 
principles  on  which  our  institutions  were  founded 
as  any  Church  organization  in  existence. 

It  is  wrell,  and  for  one  I  am  glad,  that  the  Epis 
copal  Church  exists  in  this  country.  It  is  one  of  • 
the  great  balance-wheels  in  our  complex  machinery 
of  popular  government  and  popular  thought.  On 
all  important  moral  questions,  its  intelligent  con 
stituents  are  abreast  of  the  best  thought  of  the 
world.  It  is,  and  always  has  been,  like  the  Pres 
byterian  Church,  highly  conservative  in  its  princi 
ples  and  in  its  course. 

This  conservatism,  at  all  times  beneficial  in  a 


64  COVENANTER,  CA.VALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

country  governed  by  ideas  and  not  by  force,  may 
in  the  future,  possibly  in  the  near  future,  prove  one 
of  the  great  bulwarks  against  the  tide  of  lawless 
ness,  anarchy  and  red-handed  socialism  which 
threaten  the  peace  of  the  country,  the  security  of 
private  property,  and  the  very  integrity  of  the 
Constitution  itself. 

We  cheerfully  pay  the  homage  of  sincere  respect 
to  this  august  Church,  venerable  for  its  compara 
tively  great  age,  its  conspicuous  history,  and  its 
many  noble  deeds;  venerable  on  account  of  its 
long  line  of  learned  and  eminent  adherents,  and 
still  more  venerable  on  account  of  the  piety  and 
consecration  of  the  many  distinguished  men  who 
have  shed  luster  on  its  annals.  While  there  may 
be  much  in  its  earlier  history  to  condemn,  there  is 
in  its  later  years  much  to  admire  and  to  praise; 
much  that  has  blessed  mankind  and  made  the 
world  better. 

One  of  the  boldest  declarations  made  anywhere 
in  the  Colonies  was  that  of  the  Covenanters  of 
Mecklenburg  County,  North  Carolina,  -in  May, 
1775,  a  little  over  thirteen  months  before  the  de 
cisive  action  of  the  Continental  Congress  at  Phila 
delphia,  in  1776.  No  one  of  the  Colonies  was 
more  stirred  by  the  great  events  of  1775  than 
North  Carolina.  Her  people  were  not  at  that  time 


COVENANTERS  IN  THE  REVOLUTION.       65 

greatly  oppressed,  yet  they  were  perhaps  the  ripest 
for  revolution  of  any  people  in  America.  There 
had  settled  that  large  population  of  Covenanters 
who  knew  from  tradition  or  experience  the  mon 
strous*  wrongs  of  tyrants.  Mecklenburg  County 
was  occupied  entirely  by  these  determined  people. 
When,  therefore,  they  learned,  in  May,  1775,  that 
Parliament  had  declared  the  Colonies  in  a  state  of 
revolt,  they  knew  that  the  great  crisis  had  come. 
They  did  not  wait  for  the  action  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  nor  for  that  of  their  own  Provincial 
Legislature.  They  met  in  Charlotte  to  take  coun 
sel  together.  While  in  session,  the  news  came 
that  patriot  blood  had  been  shed  at  Lexington  and 
Concord.  The  meeting  was  addressed  by  Hezekiah 
J.  Balch,  a  Covenanter  Presbyterian  minister,  and 
by  Dr.  Ephraim  Brevard  and  William  Kennon. 
Resolutions  were  offered  by  Dr.  Brevard  and 
adopted,  the  second  and  third  of  which  are  here 
inserted: 

"  2.  Resolved,  That  we,  the  citizens  of  Mecklen 
burg  County,  do  hereby  dissolve  the  political  bonds 
which  have  connected  us  with  the  mother  country, 
and  absolve  ourselves  from  all  allegiance  to  the 
British  Crown,  adjuring  all  political  connection  with 
a  nation  that  has  wantonly  trampled  on  our  rights 


66  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

and  liberties,  and  inhumanly  shed  the  innocent 
blood  of  Americans  at  Lexington  and  Concord." 

"3.  Resolved,  That  we  do  hereby  declare  our 
selves  a  free  and  independent  people  ;  that  we  are, 
and  of  right  ought  to  be,  a  sovereign  and  self- 
governed  people  under  the  power  of  God  and  the 
General  Congress,  to  the  maintenance  of  which 
independence  we  solemnly  pledge  to  each  other 
our  mutual  co-operation,  our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and 
our  most  sacred  honor."  All  honor  to  the  memory 
of  the  brave  Covenanters  of  North  Carolina.* 

The  most  daring  battle  of  the  Revolution,  and 


*  In  an  address  before  the  Scotch-Irish  Congress  at  Louis 
ville  in  1891,  referring  to  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  In 
dependence,  I  spoke  of  the  "  disputed  declaration  of  May  20," 
and  of  the  "  unquestionably  authentic  resolutions  of  May  31." 
Recently  I  have  read  the  address  of  George  W.  Graham,  M.D., 
before  the  Scotch-Irish  Congress,  at  Lexington,  Virginia,  in 
June,  1895,  printed  in  volume  seven,  reviewing  the  whole 
history  of  the  controversy  in  reference  to  the  celebrated 
'•  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence."  In  this  very 
able  and  critical  address  much  new  light  is  thrown  on  the 
subject.  If  the  writer  does  not  establish  beyond  question  the 
authenticity  of  the  resolutions  claimed  for  May  20,  1775,  he 
certainly  leaves  less  room  for  doubt  on  this  point  than  has 
hitherto  existed.  I  have  accordingly  adopted  that  view  of  the 
question  in  the  text  of  this  work.  Before  reading  this  address 
I  had  always  regarded  the  claim  in  behalf  of  the  authenticity 
of  the  resolutions  of  May  20th  as  very  questionable. 


COVENANTERS    IN   THE    REVOLUTION.  67 

the  most  important  victory  in  its  consequences, 
were  the  battle  and  the  victory  of  King's  Mount 
ain  ;  excepting  only  the  victories  of  General  George 
Rogers  Clarke  in  the  north-west.  History  has 
been  tardy  and  niggardly  in  its  treatment  of  this 
important  historical  fact.  In  some  of  our  early 
histories  less  space  was  given  to  it  than  to  the 
celebrated  adventure  of  Israel  Putnam  with  a 
wolf.  It  is  only  quite  recently  and  since  the 
appearance  of  Draper's  exhaustive  book,  entitled 
"  King's  Mountain  and  its  Heroes,"  and  since  the 
discussion  of  this  battle  in  the  Scotch-Irish  Con 
gresses,  that  any  other  than  local  interest  has  been 
awakened,  in  one  of  the  most  important  incidents 
of  the  Revolutionary  War.  Draper  does  not  de 
velop  the  prominent  part  played  in  this  brilliant 
affair  by  the  Covenanter  stock.  To  rescue  from 
oblivion  the  glory  of  this  people,  in  this  thrilling 
event,  has  been  reserved  for  their  kindred  and 
descendants  after  more  than  a  century  had  passed 
away.  For  the  fact  is  undeniable  that  it  was  this 
people,  in  the  main,  which  fought  this  battle  and 
won  this  victory.  The  great  body  of  the  army  was 
composed  of  Covenanters  from  South-western 
Virginia,  Eastern  Tennessee  and  from  the  western 
Counties  of  North  Carolina,  with  a  few  men  from 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia.  It  is  true  that  the 


68  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

two  noted  leaders  who  originated  the  expedition, 
John  Sevier  and  Isaac  Shelby  were  not  Cove 
nanters,  but  that  matters  not,  as  their  officers  and 
the  army  were  mostly  of  that  people.  Certainly 
Campbell  and  McDowell  were  Covenanters,  and 
probably  also  Cleveland,  Hambright,  Clarke,  Will 
iams,  Lacy  and  Winston. 

When  the  dreadful  conflict  of  arms  came  on,  the 
settlers  on  the  Watauga,  the  Nolichucky  and  the 
Holston  were  remote  from  danger  and  secure  in 
their  peaceable  homes,  except  from  Indian  attacks. 
But  they  were  not  indifferent  to  the  fate  of  their 
kindred  beyond  the  mountains.  After  General 
Gates'  defeat  at  Camden,  General  McDowell  who 
now  commanded  in  Western  North  Carolina,  re 
tired  across  the  mountains  to  the  back  country. 
The  army  was  broken  up.  Colonel  Ferguson, 
with  his  elated  army,  marched  into  North  Carolina, 
after  the  defeat  of  Gates,  and  took  position  at 
Gilbert  Town.  From  this  place  he  sent  a  threaten 
ing  message  to  Sevier  and  Shelby.  On  receipt  of  this 
message  Shelby  rode  at  once  to  consult  with  Sevier. 
They  agreed  to  call  out  a  part  of  their  respective 
commands,  and  march,  surprise  and  destroy  Fergu 
son  before  he  was  aware  of  their  movement.  Colonel 
Shelby  was  to  secure  the  co-operatioa  of  Colonel 
Campbell,  who  commanded  in  Washington  County, 


COVENANTERS    IN   THE    REVOLUTION.  69 

Virginia,  just  beyond  the  State  line.  Colonel 
Sevier  was  to  raise  the  money  for  the  expedition. 
He  tried  to  borrow  it  on  his  own  account,  but 
there  was  none  in  the  settlement.  He  went  to  John 
Adair,  entry-taker  for  the  district,  who  is  believed 
to  have  been  a  Covenanter,  and  representing  to 
him  the  importance  of  getting  the  use  of  the 
public  money  in  his  hands,  pledged  him  that  the 
act  should  be  legalized.  Adair  replied:  "If  the 
enemy,  by  its  use,  be  driven  from  the  country,  I 
can  trust  that  country  to  justify  and  vindicate  my 
conduct.  Take  it!" — a  reply  worthy  of  a  Roman 
in  the  best  days  of  the  Republic. 

The  whole  military  force  of  the  settlements  at 
that  time  was  less  than  a  thousand  men.  Sevier 
and  Shelby  each  selected  .from  their  commands  two 
hundred  and  forty  men,  consisting  of  the  young 
and  vigorous,  leaving  those  who  were  less  so  to  de 
fend  the  settlements.  Not  another  man  could  be 
safely  spared.  On  the  25th  of  September,  1780, 
the  forces  assembled  at  Sycamore  Shoals,  on  the 
AVatauga.  Campbell  came  from  Virginia  with 
four  hundred  men,  and  McDowell  was  there  with 
a  few  of  his  refugee  soldiers.  Sevier  and  Shelby 
were  therewith  their  contingents.  "With  the  ex 
ception,"  says  Ramsey,  a  historian  of  Tennessee, 
"of  the  few  colonists  on  the  distant  Cumberland, 


70  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

the  entire  military  force  of  what  is  now  Tennes 
see  was  assembled  at  Sycamore  Shoals.  Scarcely 
a  single  gunman  remained  that  day  at  home."  The 
aged  were  there  to  cheer  and  encourage;  the  moth 
ers,  the  wives,  the  sisters,  to  say  farewell.  "  Never," 
says  Ramsey,  "did  mountain  recess  contain  within 
it  a  loftier  or  more  enlarged  patriotism;  never  a 
cooler  or  more  determined  courage."  On  the 
morning  of  the  26th,  the  men  were  drawn  up  in  a 
body  by  the  direction  of  the  officers,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  invoking  the  divine  protection.  The  Rev. 
Samuel  Doak,  one  of  the  Covenanter  pioneer 
preachers,  was  there,  from  his  church  and  school 
at  Salem,  twenty-five  miles  distant.  He  offered  a 
fervent  prayer  for  the  safety  and  success  of  the  ex 
pedition,  and  in  a  few  patriotic  remarks  he  closed 
with  the  words:  "The  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of 
Gideon;"  and  these  sturdy  Scotch-Irish  Presbyte 
rians,  leaning  on  their  rifles,  shouted  in  patriotic 
acclaim:  "The  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  our 
Gideons."* 

The  battle  of  King's  Mountain  is  totally  unlike 
any  other  in  our  history.  It  was  the  voluntary  up 
rising  of  a  patriotic  people,  rushing  to  arms  to  aid 
their  distant  kindred,  when  their  own  homes  were 
hourly  menaced  with  danger  from  fierce  savages. 

*  King's  Mountain  and  its  Heroes. 


COVENANTERS    IN    THE    REVOLUTION.  71 

There  was  no  one  in  chief  command  except  by  con 
sent,  and  no  one  entitled  to  the  chief  command, 
Colonel  Campbell  commanding  by  the  agreement 
of  the  chief  officers.  They  served  without  pay  or 
the  hope  of  pay.  Their  march  lay  through  an  un 
inhabited  mountain  wilderness,  with  no  roads  and 
with  scarcely  a  trail.  These  mountains  are  the 
loftiest  east  of  the  great  Rockies.  The  distance  to 
the  enemy,  by  the  circuitous  routes  the  little  army 
had  to  take,  was  perhaps  two  hundred  miles  or 
more.  On  the  way,  the  expedition  was  joined  by 
small  forces  under  the  command  respectively  of 
Colonels  Cleveland,  Winston,  Ilambright,  and 
Major  Chronicle,  of  North  Carolina,  and  by  those 
under  Colonel  Williams,  of  South  Carolina,  thus 
swelling  the  total  number  to  eighteen  hundred  men. 
Senator  Vance's  grandfather,  as  he  relates,  volun 
tarily  joined  the  patriots  on  the  way. 

Two  days  before  the  battle,  the  little  army 
halted.  The  officers  selected  the  best  men  and 
horses,  and  with  these,  amounting  to  nine  hundred 
and  ten  men,  they  determined  to  make  a  forced 
march  to  overtake  Ferguson,  leaving  the  others 
on  the  jaded  horses  and  on  foot  to  follow.  For 
twenty-six  hours  these  brave  men  were  in  the  sad 
dle,  without  sleep,  arid  with  little  to  eat,  and  some 
of  them  without  any  thing,  marching  through  a 


72  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

drenching  rain.  On  the  7th  of  October,  1780,  they 
found  Ferguson  posted  on  King's  Mountain  with 
eleven  hundred  men,  part  of  them  British  regu 
lars.  Galloping  forward  to  within  a  short  distance 
of  the  enemy,  the  patriots  alighted,  tied  their 
horses,  and  hurriedly  arranged  themselves  in  order 
of  battle.  They  were  to  attack  simultaneously  on 
the  four  sides  of  the  mountain,  and  thus  surround 
Ferguson.  They  were  arranged  in  four  columns, 
two  on  either  side  of  the  mountain,  led  respectively 
by  Colonels  Campbell  and  Sevier  on  the  right  and 
Shelby  and  Cleveland  on  the  left.  When  the  col 
umns  arrived  at  their  several  positions,  with  a  loud 
yell,  they  dashed  up  the  craggy  mountain,  and  en 
circled  it  with  a  sheet  of  living  lire.  The  crest  was 
swept  by  their  rifles  as  if  by  a  tempest.  The  late 
eloquent  Bailie  Peyton,  of  Tennessee,  said  of  this 
battle:  "When  that  conflict  began,  the  mountain 
appeared  volcanic;  there  flashed  along  its  summit 
and  around  its  base,  and  up  its  sides,  one  long,  sul 
phurous  blaze."  Three  times  were  the  forces  of 
Campbell  and  Shelby  in  turn  driven  down  the 
mountain  by  bayonet  charges,  and  three  times  were 
they  rallied  and  led  back  to  the  tight.  Ferguson, 
seeing  that  all  was  lost,  with  a  few  of  his  officers, 
attempted  to  cut  his  way  out,  but  was  shot  down 
by  Sevier's  men,  pierced  by  half  a  dozen  bullets. 


COVENANTERS    IN   THE   REVOLUTION.  73 

The  battle  lasted  one  hour  and  five  minutes. 
During  that  terrible  hour,  two  hundred  and  twenty 
of  the  enemy  had  closed  their  eyes  in  death,  one 
hundred  and  eighty  were  wounded,  and  either  six 
or  seven  hundred  (the  authorities  differ  on  this 
point)  were  taken  prisoners.  Every  man  present 
was  either  killed,  wounded,  or  captured.  I  think, 
therefore,  I  am  justified  in  saying  that  this  was  the 
most  daring  as  well  as  the  most  thrilling  achieve 
ment  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  fought  almost  ex 
clusively  by  the  Covenanter  race.  Nor  was  the 
victory  less  signal  in  its  consequences.  At  that 
time,  Cornwallis  was  on  a  triumphant  march 
through  North  Carolina  to  Virginia.  Charleston 
and  Savannah  had  fallen.  Lincoln  had  lost  his 
entire  army.  Gates  had  been  defeated  at  Camden. 
All  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  had  yielded  to 
British  arms.  There  was  no  organized  force  in  the 
Southern  States  capable  of  withstanding  for  an 
hour  the  victorious  army  of  Cornwallis.  There 
was  universal  gloom  throughout  the  Colonies. 
The  best  patriots  were  in  despair.  The  news, 
therefore,  of  this  victory  came  like  a  great  light  in 
the  midst  of  profound  darkness.  It  was  the  sound 
of  triumph,  the  rift  in  the  dark  cloud,  the  break 
ing  of  morning.  Mr.  Jefferson  said  :  "  It  was  the 
6 


74  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

joyful  annunciation  of  that  turn  in  the  tide  of  suc 
cess  that  terminated  the  Revolutionary  War  with 
the  seal  of  our  Independence."  The  very  night 
Cornwallis  heard  of  it,  he  commenced  a  hasty  re 
treat  back  into  South  Carolina.  From  that  day 
the  patriot  cause  grew  brighter  and  brighter  until 
the  perfect  day  dawned  at  Yorktown. 

There  were  other  races  engaged  in  this  battle  ; 
but  as  the  Covenanters  constituted  a  majority  of 
the  early  settlers,  I  speak  of  them  in  general  terms 
simply  to  indicate  the  leading  stock.  One  of  the 
great  leaders  in  these  military  operations,  John 
Sevier,  was  a  Huguenot,  and  Shelby,  another  leader, 
was  of  Welsh  origin.  But  James  Robertson,  one 
of  the  foremost  men  in  the  early  Watauga  settle 
ment,  and  afterward  the  founder  and  defender  of 
the  Cumberland  Colony,  was  a  Covenanter  by 
descent. 

In  the  formation  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  which  Mr.  Gladstone  declares  "  the 
most  wonderful  work  ever  struck  off  at  a  given 
time  by  the  brain  and  purpose  of  man,"  *  the  four 
most  conspicuous  men,  perhaps,  in  that  great  work 
were  Alexander  Hamilton,  James  Madison,  John 
Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina,  and  James  Wilson,  of 
Pennsylvania.  Three  of  these  were  of  Covenanter 

*  Scotch-Irish  in  America,  Vol.  Ill,  115. 


COVENANTERS   IN   THE    REVOLUTION.  75 

blood,  and  Mr.  Madison,  the  fourth,  learned  his 
political  lessons  from  John  Witherspoon.  After  a 
full  discussion  in  the  Convention  of  the  principles 
to  he  embodied  in  the  Constitution,  Mr.  Rutledge 
was  appointed  Chairman  of  a  Committee  of  five  to 
make  the  first  draft  of  this  wonderful  instrument, 
which  he  did.  Eutledge  and  Wilson  were  both 
men  of  marked  ability.  Madison's  fame  is  too  well 
established  to  need  additional  praise.  As  to  Ham 
ilton,  intellectually,  he  was  the  master-spirit  of  his 
time  in  this  country.  The  celebrated  Prince  De 
Talleyrand,  wrho  knew  all  the  noted  men  of  his  day, 
both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  said  that  the 
greatest  men  he  had  known  were  Napolean,  Fox, 
and  Hamilton,  and  that  Hamilton  was  unquestion- 
bly  the  greatest  of  these.* 

The  part  taken  by  the  Covenanters  of  the 
frontiers  in  fighting  the  battles  of  the  Revolution 
in  North  and  South  Carolina  only  constituted  a 
part  of  their  patriotic  work.  Every-where  along 
the  Western  frontier  from  Georgia  to  Canada,  and 
notably  so  in  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  a  constant 
Indian  warfare  blazed  along  the  borders  from  the 
day  the  pioneers  set  foot  on  the  virgin  soil  till  long 
after  the  close  of  the  war. 

The  far-reaching  importance  of  this  Indian 
*  Memoirg  of  Prince  De  Talleyrand. 


76 

fighting  has  not  been,  and  is  not  now,  half  appre 
ciated.  But  few  men  ever  think  that  when  Sevier 
and  Robertson  and  Boone  and  Kentou  were  repel 
ling  Indian  attacks,  or  invading  the  Indian  Coun 
try,  they  were  doing  any  thing  more  than  protect 
ing  the  white  settlements;  whereas  they  were,  in 
fact,  unconsciously  to  themselves,  fighting  the  very 
battles  of  the  Revolution.  The  same  great  power 
which  put  in  motion  the  armies  of  Clinton  and 
Cornwallis  for  the  subjugation  of  the  Colonies 
along  the  Atlantic,  and  encircled  them  with  a  line 
of  fire,  also  set  in  motion  the  fierce  savage  nations 
from  Canada  to  Florida,  bent  on  the  destruction 
of  all  the  infant  settlements  west  of  the  Allegha- 
nies  and  the  Blue  Ridge.  Official  records  show 
that  it.  was  as  much  the 'policy  of  the  British  min 
istry  to  destroy  these  settlements,  and  exterminate 
the  settlers  or  drive  them  east  of  the  Alleghanies, 
as  it  was  to  destroy  the  army  of  Washington. 
Both  were  parts  of  the  same  cruel  war,  the  same 
scheme  of  subjugation.  British  agents,  shrewd 
and  heartless,  with  a  plentiful  supply  of  gold  and 
presents,  arms  and  ammunition,  were  kept  at  work 
among  all  the  tribes  east  of  the  Mississippi,  stirring 
them  up  to  their  work  of  blood.  Henry  Hamilton, 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Canada,  with  headquarters 
at  Detroit,  was  at  the  head  of  this  diabolical  move- 


COVENANTERS   IN   THE    REVOLUTION.  77 

ment.  There  was  a  regular  organized  plan  of  op 
eration.  Nor  did  the  infamy  stop  here.  Besides 
alluring  the  savages  with  presents,  their  cupidity 
and  ferocity  were  still  further  stimulated  by  pur 
chasing  from  them  the  scalps  they  had  taken. 
The  instructions  given  by  the  home  government 
were  to  destroy  the  settlers  or  drive  them  east  of 
the  Alleghanies. 

In  pursuance  of  this  comprehensive  plan,  the 
Indians  north  of  the  Ohio  made  unceasing  war  on 
the  settlers  around  Pittsburg  and  on  those  in  Ken 
tucky.  Those  south  of  the  Ohio  harrassed  and 
threatened  the  settlements  on  the  Cumberland, 
and  attempted  over  and  over  again  to  destroy  the 
Ilolston,the  Watauga,  and  the  Nolichueky  people. 
So,  also,  the  frontiers  of  the  Southern  Colonies 
were  harrassed  by  these  fierce  allies  of  Ensland. 
Again  and  again  these  demons,  incited  by  British 
agents,  silently  and  murderously  crept  through  the 
dark  forests,  to  fall  on  the  settlements  with  fire 
and  tomahawk  and  scalping-knife,  sparing  neither 
age  nor  sex.  And  as  often,  the  leaders  of  the  set- 
ments — Evan  Shelby,  Christian,  Robertson,  Boone, 
Ken  ton,  Logan,  and  Todd,  and  notably  Sevier  and 
Clarke — led  expeditions  into  the  homes  of  the  sav 
ages  and  inflicted  on  them  merited  chastisement. 
So, 'at  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  not  a  settlement 


78  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

west  of  the  mountains  had  been  destined,  not  an 
inch  of  territory  had  been  lost.  Under  the  leader 
ship  of  Sevier,  the  Watauga,  the  Ilolston,  and  the 
Xolichucky  settlers  had  slowly  crept  down  these 
streams,  extending  the  settlements  further  and  fur 
ther  west.  Robertson  had  firmly  planted  his  col 
ony  on  the  Cumberland  and  in  the  heart  of  Middle 
Tennessee.  Boone,  Logan,  and  others  had  success 
fully  defended  Kentucky,  though  more  than  once 
narrowly  escaping  destruction.  And  General 
George  Rogers  Clarke,  by  a  series  of  exploits  al 
most  unparalleled  for  daring,  had  conquered  and 
firmly  held  Illinois  and  Indiana. 

And  now  came  peace.  Where  should  the  west 
ern  boundary  line  be  fixed?  Spain  had  been  our 
ally  in  the  late  war.  She  owned  vast  possessions 
west  of  the  Mississippi.  Forecasting  the  growth 
and  expansion  of  this  young  republic,  and  foresee 
ing  dangers  to  her  western  possessions,  she  natur 
ally  sought  to  restrict  our  territory  by  making  the 
Alleghanies  the  boundary.  France  had  also  been 
our  faithful  ally.  She  insisted  that  the  line  should 
be  so  fixed  as  to  include  the  country  around  the 
head-waters  of  the  Tennessee,  covering  Eastern 
Tennessee,  and  that  between  the  Ohio  and  the 
Cumberland,  thus  restoring  to  England  a  large 
part  of  Tennessee  and  the  territory  now  forming 


COVENANTERS   IN    THE    REVOLUTION.  79 

the  States  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  and  all  the 
great  region  afterward  known  as  the  North-west 
Territory.  Strange  to  say,  the  Continental  Con 
gress,  in  a  chivalric  spirit  of  gratitude  and  courtesy 
toward  its  late  allies,  had  instructed  our  commis 
sioners,  in  fixing  the  boundary,  to  respect  the 
wishes  of  France  in  that  respect.  Franklin 
wished  to  obey  these  instructions,  but  Jay  was  im 
movable  in  demanding  the  Mississippi  as  the  west 
ern  boundary.  Adams  sided  with  him,  and  En 
gland  yielding,  the  eastern  bank  of  that  river  for 
the  most  of  its  length  became  our  western  boundary. 
It  thus  appears  that  while  the  Continental  armies 
barely  held  the  Atlantic  States  against  the  British 
fleet  and  armies,  a  few  hundred  hunters  and  pioneers 
of  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Western  Pennsylvania  and 
South-western  Virginia,  mostly  Covenanters,  un 
aided  by  Congress,  and  acting  at  their  on  expense 
and  on  their  own  volition,  \von  and  held  by  their 
valor  what  has  proved  to  be  the  very  heart  of  our 
great  empire,  against  the  combined  power  of  all 
the  savage  nations  between  Canada  and  Florida, 
backed  by  British  agents,  stimulated  by  British 
gold,  and  aided  sometimes  by  British  troops.  Put 
ting  out  of  view  entirely  the  services  rendered  to 
the  cause  of  Independence  by  Sevier  and  his  asso 
ciates  at  King's  Mountain,  and  in  other  battles  in 


80  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

the  South,  it  is  manifest  that  the  Indian  battles  on 
the  frontier  were  as  important  to  the  lasting  power 
arid  greatness  of  our  country  as  were  the  battles 
of  Washington  and  Greene.  The  frontier  leaders 
occupied,  won  and  held  the  territory  now  covered 
by  the  great  States  of  Tennessee,  Alabama.  Missis 
sippi,  Kentucky,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  parts 
of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia.  These  men  planted 
their  feet  on  this  great  territory  and  firmly  held  it. 
In  war,  as  in  peace,  the  doctrine  of  uti  possidetis 
goes  far  in  fixing  titles.* 


*  Mr.  Theodore  Roosevelt,  in  his  very  able  and  instructive 
work,  "  The  Winning  of  the  West,"  has  brought  out  the  facts 
above  referred  to  more  fully  than  any  previous  author.  I 
cheerfully  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  him. 


THE  COVENANTERS  IN  THE  SOUTH.        8l 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  COVENANTERS  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

Difference  between  grievances  of  Puritans  and  Covenanters — 
Dependence  of  New  England — Enforcement  of  Navigation 
Act — Resistance  thereto — Tumults— Closing  the  ports  of 
Boston— Charter  revised — Sympathy  and  aid  of  other 
Colonies  for  Boston — Love  of  Massachusetts  for  England — • 
Love  of  Cavaliers  for  England— Slow  to  break  away  from — 
Covenanters  hated  England  for  her  wrongs  to  them — • 
Were  ever}'- where  active  in  opposition  to  England — 
p]nglish  influence  in  Southern  Colonies — Episcopalians — 
A  majority  of  population  in  the  South — That  of  Virginia, 
New  England,  of  all  the  Colonies — Covenanters  in  New 
England— Number  in  all  the  Colonies— The  most  nu 
merous  race — Number  of  Cavaliers— Covenanters  in  Penn 
sylvania,  Virginia,  Georgia  and  North  and  South  Carolina — 
Spread  into  all  the  new  States  of  the  South — Percentage  of 
foreign  blood  in  the  States— Tories  numerous  in  the  Revo 
lution—Covenanters  most  numerous  fighting  race — They 
settle  in  the  South — "  Puritans  of  the  South  "—Contrast 
between  Puritans  and  Covenanters— Massachusetts  and 
Virginia  in  the  Revolutionary  Army— Puritan  warfare  in 
the  South — Splendid  record  of  Massachusetts  in  the  Revo 
lution. 

To  fully  understand  the  mind  and  the  spirit  of 
the  people  of  the  Colonies  at  and  previous  to  the 
Revolution,  their  antecedent  histories  must  not  he 
overlooked.  In  this  way  only  can  their  inner 

7 


82  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

motives  be  judged  and  their  actions  understood. 
Take  the  three  leading  peoples,  the  Puritans,  the 
Cavaliers  and  the  Covenanters,  for  illustration. 

When  the  causes  arose  which  led  up  to  a  clash 
of  arms,  the  Puritans  had  been  in  New  England 
nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  Whatever 
may  have  been  their  feeling  toward  the  people  in 
England,  on  their  arrival  in  this  country,  they  had 
been  here  long  enough  to  outlive  any  bitterness 
they  may  at  first  have  felt.  Certainly  they  did 
not  have  to  forget  and  forgive  centuries  of  wrongs, 
nor  did  they  cherish  enmities  which  had  been 
heaped  up  from  generation  to  generation.  In 
their  new  home  for  a  long  time  they  suffered  no 
great  oppressions  inflicted  by  the  mother  country. 
The  troubles  which  finally  drove  them  and  the 
people  of  the  other  Colonies  into  rebellion  were  in 
part  merely  wrongs  in  principle,  rather  than  actual 
wrongs.  These  grievances,  however,  whether  real, 
or  merely  menaced,  were  quite  sufficient  to  justify 
before  the  tribunal  of  history  the  measures  of  re 
sistance  adopted  by  them,  and  it  must  be  admitted 
that  no  people  were  ever  more  prompt  in  assuming 
their  natural  right  to  independence  among  the 
nations. 

The  dependence  of  New  England  on  the  mother 
country  during  all  its  colonial  days  down  to  a 


THE    COVENANTERS    IN    THE    SOUTH.  83 

period  recently  before  the  Revolution  was  more 
nominal  than  real.  In  the  exercise  of  power  and 
authority — in  a  word  in  all  matters  pertaining  to 
their  own  internal  affairs  and  self-government — 
they  were  nearly  as  independent  and  as  free  from 
constraint  in  1760  as  in  1780.  This  statement 
holds  good  as  to  the  other  Colonies  also.  The 
people  of  New  England  were  not  until  a  late 
period  goaded  on  toward  rebellion,  and  constantly 
exasperated  by  unceasing  and  intolerable  oppres 
sions.  They  had  not,  therefore,  been  hoarding  up 
their  wrath  for  a  day  of  vengeance. 

But  a  time  was  to  come  when  the  mailed  hand 
of  England  was  to  be  laid  with  all  its  weight  on 
Massachusetts.  The  first  great  controversy  grew 
out  of  an  attempt  to  more  strictly  enforce  the 
Xavigation  Act,  which  had  been  passed  by  Parlia 
ment  to  restrict  the  trade  of  the  Colonies.  This 
act  was  partial,  unjust,  and  oppressive.  Its  provi 
sions  were  often  evaded  by  smuggling.  When 
this  became  known,  application  was  made  to  the 
Court  for  "  Writs  of  Assistance,"  to  enable  the  col 
lectors  of  ports  to  search  for  and  seize  smuggled 
goods.  James  Otis,  Jr.,  though  Advocate-General, 
refused  to  represent  the  Crown,  resigned,  and 
appeared  for  the  people,  in  opposition  to  the  writs. 
This  was  in  February,  1761.  The  indignant  elo- 


84  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND   PURITAN. 

quence  of  Otis,  in  behalf  of  popular  rights,  burst 
forth  in  a  flame  of  fire.  The  Crown  triumphed, 
but  popular  liberty  that  day  had  its  birth  in  Massa 
chusetts.  John  Adams,  who  was  present,  says : 
"American  independence  was  then  and  there 
born."  Then  followed  the  Stamp  Act,  and  after 
its  repeal,  the  tax  on  tea.  At  each  new  invasion 
of  their  privileges,  the  people  became  bolder  and 
more  defiant  in  their  defense.  With  a  daring, 
not  to  say  an  audacity  almost  unparalleled,  they 
boarded  the  vessel  containing  the  tea  on  which  the 
duty  was  to  be  paid,  emptied  it  into  the  bay,  and 
then  quietly  returned  to  their  homes  as  if  nothing 
had  happened.  Riots  were  frequent  in  the  streets 
of  Boston.  In  one  of  these,  three  citizens  were 
killed  by  British  soldiers.  Excitement  and  patri 
otic  feeling  rose  to  a  white  heat.  To  punish  these 
turbulent  friends  of  liberty,  the  port  of  Boston  was 
closed  against  all  outgoing  and  incoming  vessels. 
Trade  and  commerce  were  to  be  cut  oft'  from  the 
insolent  city.  Its  charter  was  revised  so  as  to 
take  away  its  ancient  rights  and  bring  its  govern 
ment  under  the  control  of  the  Crown.  But  Boston 
stood  firm.  The  people  yielded  not  one  iota  of  the 
principles  for  which  they  contended,  though  they 
saw  their  commerce  destroyed  and  poverty  in 
vading  their  homes.  In  the  day  of  peril  and 


THE  COVENANTERS  IN  THE  SOUTH.        85 

gloom,  no  people  could  have  manifested  a  loftier 
spirit,  a  firmer  purpose,  or  a  more  exalted  patriot 
ism.  Their  conduct  was  heroic. 

While  the  people  of  Boston  were  enduring  these 
trials  with  a  sublime  courage,  the  people  of  the 
Colonies  were  not  indifferent  spectators  of  their 
suft'e rings.  The  cause  of  Massachusetts  was  made 
the  cause  of  all.  On  learning  that  the  port  of 
Boston  was  closed,  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  New 
York  sent  supplies  for  the  relief  of  the  city,  with 
brave  words  of  encouragement.  Other  Colonies  did 
the  same  thing.  Christopher  Gadsden,  of  South 
Carolina,  in  sending  a  generous  contribution,  said  : 
"  Do  n't  pay  for  an  ounce  of  the  d— — d  tea  !  " 

After  more  than  a  century  of  peaceful  existence 
and  comparative  independence,  the  people  of  Mas-*" 
sachusetts  suddenly  saw  themselves  treated  as, 
aliens,  as  a  conquered  race,  and  their  most 
cherished  rights  rudely  assailed.  And  yet  to  the 
last,  like  dutiful  children,  they  were  reluctant  to 
sever  the  tender  ties  of  consanguinity.  Their  ideas 
were  all  English.  They  felt  pride  in  English  his 
tory  and  in  English  glory.  Their  ancestors  had 
helped  to  make  for  England  its  proud  position. 
Its  history  was  a  part  of  their  heritage.  England 
was  their  native  land,  their  mother  country. 
Many  of  their  kindred  were  still  there.  The  En- 


86  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

glish  were  their  fellow  countrymen.  The  ties  of 
blood  bound  the  two  together  in  a  common  sym 
pathy.  As  children,  they  were  slow  to  break 
away  from  their  parent.  When  finally  driven  into 
a  hostile  conflict,  there  was  as  much  of  sorrow  as 
of  anger  on  their  part. 

It  was  subsequent  to  May,  1775,  before  John 
Adams  uttered  his  first  public  word  in  favor  of 
separation  and  independence.* 

In  the  case  of  the  Cavaliers  of  Virginia,  the 
facts  were  even  stronger  in  the  same  direction  than 
with  the  Puritans.  There  was  on  their  part  an  en 
thusiastic  attachment  for  England.  They  were 
the  petted  children  of  royalty.  They  loved  En 
gland  and  English  institutions  with  all  the  ardor 
"of  grateful  children.  The  English  Church,  too, 
they  loved  with  deepest  devotion.  It  was  another 
bond  to  tie  them  to  the  mother  country.  They 
witnessed  with  sad  hearts  the  estrangement  grad 
ually  becoming  more  and  more  manifest  between 
the  King  and  the  Colonies.  They  were  slow  to 
tear  themselves  away  from  royal  sunshine  and  the 
splendor  of  royal  greatness.  Some  never  did  so. 
Others,  when  they  recognized  that  an  inevitable 
conflict  had  come,  one  which  could  not  be  averted, 
smothered  their  traditional  love  for  their  mother 


*  Presbyterians  and  the  Kevolution,  77. 


THE  COVENANTERS  IN  THE  SOUTH.        87 

land,  and  threw  themselves  into  the  great  strug 
gle  on  the  side  of  independence  with  all  the  ardor 
and  impetuosity  of  their  ancestors  fighting  under 
the  fiery  Prince  Rupert.  But  mark,  these  were 
not  the  men  who  urged  forward  the  Revolution  in 
its  inception.  As  we  have  seen,  this  had  been  the 
work  of  Patrick  Henry  and  of  his  Covenanter  as 
sociates.  As  late  as  August  1,  1775,  Mr.  Jefferson 
said:  "  I  would  rather  be  in  dependence  on  Great 
Britain,  properly  limited,  than  on  any  nation  on 
earth,  or  than  on  no  nation." 

In  May,  1776,  Washington  said  :  "  When  I  took 
command  of  this  army  (June,  1775),  I  abhorred 
the  idea  of  independence." 

These  were  patriotic  Episcopalians,  as  true  to  the 
American  cause  as  men  could  be,  and  yet  reluctant 
to  break  away  from  the  mother  Church,  and  from 
the  splendor  of  the  British  Crown.  Long  before 
this  time,  Patrick  Henry,  who  was  bound  by  no 
inherited  and  traditional  ties,  had  exclaimed:  "If 
we  wish  to  be  free,  we  must  fight;  I  repeat,  we 
must  fight.  .  .  .  There  is  no  retreat  but  in 
submission  and  slavery." 

Turning  to  the  Covenanters,  we  find  a  marked 
contrast  between  them  and  the  other  two  races. 
They  were  not  Englishmen,  though  the  two  peo 
ples  were  originally  of  substantially  the  same  Teu- 


88  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

tonic  blood.  For  centuries,  the  kingdoms  of  Scot 
land  and  England,  and  the  people  of  the  two 
kingdoms,  had  been  enemies,  always  at  war  with 
each  other,  or  with  minds  at  all  times  ready  for 
war.  They  were  practically  alien  enemies.  Scot 
land  accepted  the  Reformation  with  singular  una 
nimity,  and  adopted  the  Presbyterian  form  of 
Church  government.  England  also  accepted  the 
Reformation,  but  adopted  Episcopacy,  and  made  it 
the  religion  of  the  State.  In  the  course  of  time, 
the  Covenanters  were  denied  the  right  to  exercise 
their  own  chosen  religion  according  to  their  own 
forms.  Both  in  Scotland  and  Ireland,  efforts  \vere 
made  by  the  Sovereigns  of  England,  instigated  by 
the  Bishops,  during  a  part  of  the  seventeenth  and 
most  of  the  eighteenth  centuries,  to  deprive  them 
of  their  cherished  faith,  and  to  impose  on  them  a 
worship  they  abhorred.  This  was  accompanied  in 
Scotland  by  a  century  of  heartless  atrocities  and 
persecutions,  and  in  Ireland  by  broken  faith  and 
unfulfilled  promises  on  the  part  of-the  government, 
by  cruel  injustice  on  the  part  of  the  Bishops,  and 
by  extortion  on  the  part  of  the  English  landlords. 
At  last,  filled  with  hatred  of  every  thing  English, 
and  burning  for  revenge,  these  spirited  and  ill- 
trealed  Covenanters  fled  to  the  Colonies. 

When  the  curtain   began  to   rise  on  the  great 


THE  COVENANTERS  IN  THE  SOUTH.        89 

drama  of  the  Revolution,  the  outrages  inflicted  on 
these  people  were  recent  and  fresh  in  their  memo 
ries.  It  was  not  alone  the  wrongs  borne  by  their 
ancestors  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  which 
they  remembered.  True,  they  had  these,  as  the 
Puritans  also  had  them.  But  many  and  grievous 
were  the  cruelties  the  Covenanters  themselves  had 
endured.  The  memory  of  Claverhouse's  victims, 
the  slaughter  of  poor  unarmed  peasants  at  Both- 
well  Bridge,  the  atrocities  of  the  Highland  soldiers, 
the  cries  of  agony  wrung  from  strong  men  by  the 
rack,  the  boot,  and  the  thumbscrew  in  the  secret 
chambers  of  the  Old  Castle,  at  Edinburgh,  the 
crackling  fire  as  it  slowly  enveloped  the  writhing 
victims  chained  to  the  stake — all  these  and  a  thou 
sand  more  persecutions  were  well  remembered. 
But  ten  times  more  vividly  than  these  were  re 
called  the  recent  wrongs,  which  many  of  those  liv 
ing  had  endured  in  Ireland,  when  they  were  evicted 
from  their  little  homes  by  heartless  landlords,  when 
their  schools  were  closed  by  order  of  the  Bishops, 
when  their  ministers  were  silenced  and  deposed 
from  their  own  churches,  when  they  were  forbid 
den  to  bury  their  dead,  except  according  to  Episr 
copal  forms.  All  these  and  many  more  grievances 
were  burned  into  the  very  souls  of  these  men.  The 
accumulated  wrath  of  long,  terrible  years,  stored 


90  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

up  in  their  minds,  was  ready  to  burst  forth  into  a 
flame.  The  Covenanters  had  come  indeed  to  hate 
England  and  every  thing  English  with  an  intensity 
and  a  depth  of  bitterness  seldom  found  among  any 
people.  They  had  longed  for  the  day  when  they 
could  repay  England  and  the  English  Church  and 
the  English  landlords  for  countless  oppressions. 
The  opportunity  was  now  at  hand.  And  every 
where  throughout  the  Colonies,  from  Maine  to 
Georgia,  were  scattered  this  determined  English- 
hating  people,  ready  and  foremost  in  stirring  up 
the  strife  and  in  demanding  resistance  and  separa 
tion.  The  multiplied  grievances  of  two  centuries 
were  now  to  be  avenged.  It  is  shown  elsewhere 
that  at  the  time,  these  men,  so  ready,  so  eager  for 
resistance,  were  regarded  by  Tory  and  Episcopal 
writers  as  chiefly  responsible  for  the  War  of  Inde 
pendence.  But  for  their  influence,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  a  single  Colony  south  of  New  Jersey 
could  have  been  brought  into  the  plan  of  resistance 
and  in  favor  of  separation.  In  Pennsylvania,  they 
pushed  the  obstructing  Quakers  aside,  and  took 
the  control  of  the  Colony  into  their  own  hands. 
In  Virginia,  they  overawed  the  aristocratic  En 
glish-loving  people  of  the  Eastern  Counties,  and 
either  insured  co  operation  on  their  part,  or  the 
flight  of  those  who  still  adhered  to  the  royal  cause. 


THE  COVENANTERS  IN  THE  SOUTH.        91 

Iii  North  Carolina,  the  spirit  of  the  Mecklenhurg 
Resolutions  animated  the  majority  of  the  people, 
in  spite  of  the  English  influences  at  work.  In 
South  Carolina,  notwithstanding  there  existed  a 
considerable  tory  powrer,  the  Covenanter  spirit 
(combined  with  that  of  the  Huguenots),  under  the 
lead  of  Rutledge,  Sumter,  Gadsden,  Moultrie,  the 
Pinckneys,  Pickens,  Huger,  and  Tennant,  placed 
that  State  alongside  of  the  foremost  Colonies  in 
the  great  patriotic  uprising. 

It  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  the  original  set 
tlers  in  all  the  Colonies,  excepting  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  Delaware,  and  perhaps  to  some 
extent  in  Pennsylvania,  were  largely,  and  in  most 
cases,  almost  exclusively  English  people.  All  the 
Colonies  were  settled  before  the  advent  of  the 
Covenanters.  The  English,  especially  in  all  the 
Southern  Colonies,  \vere  generally  if  not  nearly 
universally  of  the  established  church,  and  many 
of  them  royalists.  They  favored,  as  a  remedy,  re 
monstrance,  petitions,  and  delay.  And  but  for  the 
large  Covenanter  population  in  the  Colonies,  En 
glish  influence  in  all  probability  would  have  pre 
vailed  in  their  councils,  and  the  Revolution  would 
have  been  postponed  or  defeated. 

It  is  true  that  New  England  also  like  the  South 
ern  Colonies  had  been  settled  by  people  of  English 


92  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

birth,  but  they  were  not  Episcopalians,  bat  orig 
inally  Calvinists  in  religion.  Like  the  Cove 
nanters,  they  had  come  to  this  country  burning 
with  the  memory  of  the  persecutions  they  had  en 
dured  in  the  mother  country,  but  this  was  a  long 
time  before.  The  generation  that  suffered  had 
passed  away.  They  were  not  held  to  the  mother 
country  by  the  sacred  ties  of  a  powerful  and  mag 
nificent  church,  but  repelled  from  it  on  that  very 
account.  While  many  of  their  Avrongs  were  not 
recent,  as  -with  the  Covenanters,  they  were  in  their 
origin  of  such  a  fundamental  character  as  to  cut 
them  loose  from  any  special  love  for  England  or 
for  the  English  people.  When  the  Revolution 
came  on,  there  was  nothing  to  hold  the  New  En 
gland  people  back  from  giving  it  their  cordial  sup 
port.  They  were,  therefore,  animated  in  their 
course  by  a  love  of  liberty  as  well  as  by  recent  and 
great  injuries.  The  Covenanters  had  both  motives 
to  spur  them  forward. 

And  yet  New  England  alone  could  not  have 
carried  the  Revolution  to  a  successful  termination, 
and  would  not  alone  have  undertaken  such  a  thing. 
A  majority  of  the  population  of  the  Colonies  were 
in  the  South.  The  live  Southern  Colonies  contained 
perhaps  half  of  the  English  speaking  race  in 
America.  Virginia  alone  contained  one-fifth  of 


THE    COVENANTERS    IN    THE    SOUTH.  93 

the  population,  or  about  550,000  souls.  All  the 
Colonies  together  had  only  2,750,000  inhabitants.* 
Of  that  number  more  than  1,375,000  were  in  the 
South.  In  1790,  when  the  first  census  was  taken, 
the  population  of  the  United  States  was  a  little 
less  than  four  millions.  New  England  had  at  that 
time  1,002,660  inhabitants,  Virginia  contained 
747,610,  while  the  State  of  New  York  had  only 
340,120.  The  increase  from  the  Revolution  to 
that  time  was  about  thirty  per  cent.  Supposing 
the  rate  of  increase  to  have  been  about  the  same  in 
the  New  England  States  that  it  was  in  the  wrhole 
country,  it  would  have  given  them  at  the  time  of 
the  Revolution  scarcely  750,000  inhabitants.  Nor 
were  all  the  New  England  population  of  .750,000 
of  Puritan  blood.  There  were  some  Quakers  and 
many  Baptists.  Rhode  Island  was  a  Baptist  Col 
ony.  At  an  early  day,  as  is  elsewhere  shown, 
22,000  Covenanters  settled  in  New  England,f  some 
of  them  in  1718,  and  all  of  them  in  the  first  part 
of  that  century.  Douglas  Campbell  suggests  that 
there  was  probably  a  much  greater  number  of  this 
stock  in  New  England  than  is  generally  supposed. 
They  were  numerous  in  New  Hampshire,  Ver- 

:i:  McMaster's  Vol.  I,  7,  8.     This  estimate  is  based  on  esti 
mates  made  by  DeBow,  Vol.  Ill,  404. 
t  Scotch-Irish  Seeds  in  America,  277. 


94  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND   PURITAN. 

raont,  and  in  Maine,  as  he  points  out,  so  much  so 
as  to  almost  make  the  two  first  named  Covenanter 
States.  The  Covenanters  who  settled  in  New  En 
gland  fifty  years  before  1775  must  have  numbered 
at  the  latter  date  50,000  or  60,000.  These,  with 
with  the  Quakers  and  the  Baptists,  probably  made 
the  number,  not  of  Puritan  blood  in  New  England, 
fully  100,000,  leaving  the  latter  race  only  about 
650,000,  including  slaves  and  indentured  servants. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Covenanters  numbered 
in  all  the  Colonies  at  that  time  over  900.000,  mak 
ing  them  decidedly  the  most  numerous  people  in 
the  country.  When  we  consider  the  facts,  this 
should  surprise  no  one.  Between  1728  and  1750, 
twelve  thousand  arrived  annually  in  Philadelphia 
alone.*  Suppose  they  had  only  doubled  in  number 
in  these  forty-seven  years;  then  they  would  have 
numbered  in  1775  half  a  million.  But  the  Cove 
nanters  who  landed  in  Philadelphia  were  not  the 
only  ones  who  came  to  the  Colonies.  They  landed 
at  other  ports  as  well :  at'  New  York,  New  Castle, 
Baltimore;  at  Wilmington,  Charleston,  and  Savan 
nah.  This  immigration  commenced  about  the 
year  1700  and.  continued,  with  intermissions,  until 
the  Revolution,  a  period  of  seventy-five  years. 

*  Scotch-Irish  Seeds  in  America,  276. 


THE    COVENANTERS   IN   THE    SOUTH.  95 

Sometimes  the  immigration  was  very  active.  "In 
the  two  years  which  followed  the  Antrim  evic 
tions,"  says  Fronde,  "thirty  thousand  Protestants 
left  Ulster."  James  Logan,  President  of  the  Pro 
prietary  Council  of  Pennsylvania,  wrote,  in  1729, 
that:  "Last  week  not  less  than  six  ships  arrived, 
and  that  every  day  two  or  three  arrive  also." 
Froude  says:  "That  ships  could  not  be  found  to 
carry  the  crowds  that  were  eager  to  go."  * 

From  the  well-ascertained  facts  as  to  this  re 
markable  immigration,  the  conclusion  may  be 
safely  reached  that,  prior  to  1775,  not  less  than 
500,000  people  of  the  Covenanter  race  from  Scot 
land  and  Ireland  had  settled  in  the  Colonies. 
Putting  the  average  length  of  time  they  had  been 
here  at  thirty  years,  it  can  be  safely  assumed  that 
they  had  increased  at  least  eighty  per  cent  during 
that  time,  making  them  number  not  less  than 
900,000  people  in  1775. 

It  is  clear  that  the  Puritans,  in  1775,  could  not 
have  much  exceeded  600,000,  for  in.  1790  the  whole 
population  of  New  England  was  only  a  fraction 
over  1,000,000. 

The  Cavaliers  in  Virginia  at  that  time  could  not 
have  exceeded  400,000,  if  indeed  they  were  nearly 

*  Sc¥otch-Irish  Seeds  in  America,  274. 


96  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

so  numerous,  including  their  large  number  of  slaves 
and  white  servants,  since  the  whole  population  of 
the  Colony  in  1790  was  only  747,610.*  But  sup 
pose  they  numbered  450,000;  it  would  only  make 
them  half  as  numerous  as  the  Covenanters  in  the 
entire  country.  These  estimates  show  that  the 
Covenanters  were,  at  the  date  of  the  Revolution, 
the  most  numerous  of  the  three  great  subdivisions 
of  the  people  in  the  country. 

It  has  been  computed  that  the  Covenanters  at 
that  time  amounted  to  one-third  of  the  entire  pop 
ulation  of  the  country.  This  I  think  a  very  low 
estimate.  This  would  give  them  916,666  souls— 
about  the  same  result  reached  by  the  previous 
process  of  calculation.  The  larger  part  of  these 
were  in  the  South,  perhaps  two-thirds,  or  more 
than  600,000.  They  therefore  constituted  nearly 
one-half  of  the  entire  population  of  the  Southern 
Colonies  and  States.  It  will  he  evident,  on  a  little 
reflection,  that  they  were  more  numerous  than  any 
other  single  people.  In  New  York,  and  especially 
in  the  western  section,  a  large  part  of  the  popula 
tion  seems  to  have  been  of  this  stock.  Delaware 
and  'New  Jersey  also  had  a  large  Covenanter  pop 
ulation.  In  Pennsyluania,  they  were  very  numer- 

*  Lecky  says  that  they  numbered  250,000  souls.     England  in 
the  Eighteenth  Century,  Vol.  III. 


.     THE    COVENANTERS   IN   THE    SOUTH.  97 

ous,  being  estimated  at  one-third  of  the  population. 
Their  innuence  upon  passing  events  was  greater 
than  might  have  been  expected  even  from  their 
numbers.  In  1775,  in  all  the  Southern  States, 
they  exercised  considerable  power.  In  North  and 
South  Carolina,  their  control  was  almost  supreme, 
as  it  has  been  ever  since.  Kamsay,  the  historian 
of  South  Carolina,  states  that  Ireland — that  is,  the 
Covenanter  settlements — contributed  most  to  the 
population  of  that  State.  Williamson  says  the 
same  thing  in  reference  to  North  Carolina.*  It  is 
admitted  that  Kentucky  was  peopled  by  them.  It 
is  equally  clear  that  Tennessee,  from  the  very  first 
settlement  has  always  been  in  the  main  under  the 
direction  of  this  people.  Any  one  acquainted  with 
the  names  of  its  early  inhabitants,  with  the  history 
of  the  old  families,  and  their  customs,  and  with  that 
of  the  State,  can  have  no  doubt  on  this  point.  In 
deed,  the  early  settlers  were  almost  entirely  from 
the  Covenanter  population  of  Virginia  and  of 
Xorth  and  South  Carolina;  as  the  population  of 
Kentucky  was  from  the  Covenanters  of  Virginia 
and  Pennsylvania.^  . 

Georgia,  also,  was  mainly   settled  by  the   Cov- 

*  Proceedings  Scotch-Irish  Congress,  Vol.  IV,  141. 
tld.  14i'. 


98  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

enanter  race.  Oglethorpe's  Colony  failed  in  this 
State  in  1752.  The  New  England  Colony  at  Sun- 
bury  also  failed.*  Then  came  the  Covenanters 
"from  the  mountain  and  Piedmont  regions  of  the 
Carolinas  and  Virginia,  and  filled  all  Middle 
Georgia."  They  have  gone  on  from  the  day  of 
their  arrival  in  Georgia,  with  that  energy,  intelli 
gence,  and  persistence  so  peculiar  to  them,  build 
ing  up  the  State  in  its  material  resources,  in  intel 
lectual  achievements,  in  moral  and  religious  works, 
and  in  molding  and  shaping  its  institutions,  until 
to-day  its  pre-eminence  among  Southern  States  is 
acknowledged  by  all  the  world. 

And  when  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Flor 
ida,  and  Arkansas  were  opened  for  settlement,  these 
States  were  filled  by  the  more  numerous  and  dom 
inant  race  from  the  older  Southern  States  of  Vir 
ginia,  the  Carolinas,  Georgia,  Tennessee,  and  Ken 
tucky.  To  a  large  extent,  indeed  to  a  greater  ex 
tent  than  from  any  other  quarter,  Missouri  also 
was  settled  from  the  same  sources,  it  being  a  slave 
State.  Finally,  Texas  was  at  first  built  up  almost 
exclusively  by  a  Southern  population.  Thus  the 


*  For  a  particular  account  of  this  settlement  and  the  achieve 
ments  of  the  Covenanters  in  Georgia,  I  refer  the  reader  to  a 
very  able  address  by  Patrick  Calhoun  before  the  Scotch-Irish 
Congress,  at  Atlanta,  in  1892,  Vol.  XIV,  136. 


THE    COVENANTERS   IN    THE    SOUTH.  99 

Covenanters,  the  more  numerous  stock  at  the  date 
of  the  Revolution,  were  spread  over  the  entire 
South.  And  to-day  the  blood  of  that  people  greatly 
predominates  over  any  other  in  that  section. 

It  is  undeniably  true  according  to  both  history 
and  tradition  that  the  early  settlers  of  Tennessee 
and  Kentucky,  of  West  Virginia,  and  of  all  the 
upland  regions  of  old  Virginia  and  of  North  and 
South  Carolina  and  Middle  Georgia,  were  nearly 
all  Presbyterians.  If  these  were  not  Covenanters, 
let  me  ask  of  what  stock  they  were? 

Has  the  reader  ever  reflected  as  to  the  source 
from  which  the  population  of  the  Southern  States, 
formed  since  the  Revolution,  came  and  from  what 
stock  ?  They  did  not  come  from  the  Northern  States, 
except  a  few  Germans,  who  settled  in  Virginia  and 
Tennessee  at  an  early  day,  and  except  a  fairly  large 
German  population  which  settled  in  Texas  and 
Missouri  in  later  years.  The  Southern  States 
never  attracted  immigrants  either  from  the  North 
or  from  abroad.  The  census  of  1890  throws  much 
light  on  this  subject.  The  North  Atlantic  Division, 
consisting  of  the  States  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire, 
Vermont,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecti 
cut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania, 
has  47.4  per  cent  of  persons  of  foreign  parentage. 
The  South  Atlantic  Division,  consisting  of  the 


100     COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

States  of  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  West 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
and  Florida,  has  6.02  per  cent.  The  South  Central 
Division,  consisting  of  the  States  of  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Texas, 
Arkansas,  and  Territory  of  Oklahoma,  has  a  per 
centage  of  7.50.  The  North  Central  Division,  con 
sisting  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley  States,  has 
43.02  per  cent.  And  the  Western  Division,  consist 
ing  of  the  States  and  Territories  west  of  Kansas 
and  Nebraska,  has  a  percentage  of  48.67. 

Let  us  take  a  few  of  the  States  for  comparison  : 
Massachusetts  has  56.24  per  cent  of  persons  of 
foreign  parentage;  Connecticut,  50.32;  Rhode 
Island,  58.02;  New  York,  5.6.65;  Illinois,  49.06; 
Michigan,  54.72;  Minnesota,  75.42;  North  Dakota, 
78.98;  California,  56.72.  In  the  Southern  States, 
Virginia  has  2.63;  North  Carolina,  0.70;  South 
Carolina,  1.53;  Georgia,  1.78;  Kentucky,  9.87; 
Tennessee,  3.02;  Mississippi,  2.00;  Texas,  15.00; 
Arkansas,  3.37. 

These  figures  disclose  a  remarkable  state  of  facts. 
They  show  that  the  only  people  of  nearly  a  pure, 
original  type  and  blood  in  the  United  States  are 
in  the  Southern  States,  and  that  those  approaching 
the  nearest  to  the  original  type  are  found  in  the 
States  where  the  Covenanters  first  settled  in  such 


THE    COVENANTERS    IN    THE    SOUTH.  10l 

great  numbers,  namely:  in  Virginia,  West  Vir 
ginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
Tennessee,  and  Kentucky. 

Returning  to  the  question  as  to  the  stock  from 
which  a  majority  of  the  Southern  people  have  de 
scended,  we  must  keep  in  mind  that  during  the 
Revolution  there  was  a  large  tory  element  in  the 
Colonies.  John  Adams  estimated  that  one-third 
of  the  people  were  of  this  class.  Justin  Winsor 
has  estimated  it  at  two-fifths.*  These  estimates 
at  this  day  seem  large,  but  we  have  no  means  of 
disproving  or  controverting  them.  The  tories 
were  certainly  numerous  in  New  York  and  Penn 
sylvania,  and  in  all  the  Southern  States.  There 
was  also  a  considerable  number  in  the  New  En 
gland  States.  But  of  these  tories  the  Covenanters 
formed  no  part.  The  only  apparent  exception  to 
this  statement  were  the  Highlanders  of  North 
Carolina  under  Colonel  Donald  McDonald,  who 
took  up  arms' for  the  King  in  the  Revolution. 
He  and  his  followers  had  emigrated  from  Scotland 
thirty  years  before.  There  they  had  borne  arms 
on  the  side  of  Charles  Edward  the  Pretender,  in 
the  battle  of  Culloden.  They  were  pardoned  for 
their  offense,  on  condition  that  they  would  leave 

*  Bryant's  History,  Vol.  Ill,  455  ;  Justin  Winsor,  History  of 
America. 


102  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

the  country  and  bear  true  allegiance  thenceforth 
to  the  King.  They  were  bound  to  the  King  by 
this  oath,  as  well  as  by  gratitude  for  sparing  their 
lives.  It  is  to  their  credit,  rather  than  otherwise, 
that  they  kept  their  oath,  and  manifested  their 
sense  of  obligation  for  the  mercy,  so  uncommon  in 
that  day,  shown  them.  In  addition  to  this  the 
Highlanders  were  not  generally  Covenanters ; 
many  of  them  were  Catholics.  Aside  from  this 
exception,  if,  in  fact,  it  is  one,  there  is  no  other 
case,  so  far  as  I  can  find,  in  all  the  Colonies  where 
the  Covenanters  were  untrue  or  unfaithful  to  the 
great  cause  of  American  liberty.  As  I  elsewhere 
point  out,  Ramsay,  the  historian  of  South  Caro 
lina,*  said  that  "  the  Irish "  (that  is  the  Cove 
nanters)  were  almost  to  a  man  on  the  side  of 
Independence.  In  Pennsylvania  this  people  was 
united  in  favor  of  Independence,  and  contributed, 
though  only  one-third  of  the  population,  a  ma 
jority  of  the  troops  of  t'he  State  to  the  Continental 
army.  The  same  was  true,  we  are  told,  to  a  large 
extent,  of  the  States  south  of  Pennsylvania.f 

The  influence  this  people  exerted  in  the 
Southern  Colonies  in  the  Revolution  can  be  better 
appreciated  when  we  keep  in  mind  how  large  a 

*  Fiske  says  that  the  Scotch  merchants  were  loyalists. 
t  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  489,  490. 


THE    COVENANTERS    IN   THE    SOUTH.  103 

part  of  the  population  it  formed.  Deducting  the 
tories  and  the  Quakers,  the  Covenanters  would 
appear  to  have  been  considerably  more  than  one- 
half  of  the  fighting  population.  And  when  we 
recall  how  anxious  to  take  up  arms  they  were, 
how  united  in  an  intense  and  common  purpose  to 
achieve  Independence,  we  can  realize  the  great 
work  they  did  in  the  Revolution.  We  must 
further  keep  before  as,  in  estimating  their  serv 
ices,  that  they  were  the  best  educated  race  in  the 
South ;  that  they  had  great  force  of  will  and 
tenacity  of  purpose.  As  soldiers,  they  were  as 
brave  as  any  in  the  American  army.  And  when  we 
add  to  this  the  fact  that  they  were  urged  forward 
by  an  ardent  love  of  liberty,  by  a  deathless  devo 
tion  to  their  religion,  and,  as  no  other  race  was,  by 
the  maddening  memories  of  recent  wrongs  which 
fired  their  whole  beings,  then  their  important 
service  in  securing  Independence  can  be  clearly 
seen. 

We  must  keep  in  mind  that  the  Quakers  of 
Pennsylvania,  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  as 
before  stated,  would  not  bear  arms.  As  we  have 
seen  many  members  of  the  established  church 
adhered  to  the  royal  cause.  The  fact  is  undeniable 
that  there  was  a  large  number  of  tories  in  the 

o 

Colonies,  and   that  they  were  for  the  most  part 


104  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

English.  Many  of  them  were  pure,  conscientious 
men  who  thought  there  was  no  justifiable  cause 
for  separation,  and  honestly  preferred  to  remain 
under  the  rule  of  England.  When  hostilities 
commenced  some  of  these  quitted  the  Colonies 
and  never  returned,  and  some  took  up  arms  in  the 
King's  army,  or  refused  to  take  part  in  the  war. 
Some  went  to  England,  some  to  Canada,  some  to 
Nova  Scotia,  some  to  Bermuda,  and  others  to  the 
Spanish  Territory  of  Florida.*  In  such  cases, 
they  lost  caste,  and  were  ever  afterward  held  in 
the  deepest  detestation.  The  result  was  there  was 
a  large  population  who  would  not  and  did  not  fight 
for  the  Colonies.  But  the  Covenanters,  on  the 
other  hand,  forming  a  majority  of  the  patriots, 
were  eager  for  the  conflict. 

When  the  tories  and  the  Quakers  were  elimi 
nated  from  the  1,350,000  souls  in  the  Southern 
Colonies,  only  about  850,000  people  were  left  from 
which  to  draw  soldiers.  Who  were  these  850,000 
people  ?  If  previous  estimates  are  correct,  nearly 
or  quite  600,000  of  them  were  Covenanters.  If 
much  the  larger  number  was  not  of  this  race,  wrho 
were  they?  So  far  as  I  know,  the  Catholics  of 
Maryland  were  true  to  the  cause  of  Independence, 

*  McMaster,  Vol.  1,108  to  120;  Justin  Winsor,  History  of 
America. 


THE    COVENANTERS   IN   THE    SOUTH.  105 

but  they  were  not  numerous.  The  Baptists  also 
were  every- where  loyal  to  the  Colonies,  but  their 
number  was  very  limited.  The  Methodists  in  the 
country  were  also  true  and  faithful.  But  that 
great  church  was  then  in  its  infancy.  The  Hugue 
nots  were  as  true  to  the  American  cause  as  the 
Covenanters,  but  their  numbers  were  likewise 
small.  The  Germans  who  had  settled  in  Virginia 
constituted  but  a  small  part  of  the  population,  so 
that  not  many  fighting  men  could  be  drawn  from 
them.  Many  of  the  Cavaliers  fought  for  Inde 
pendence  ;  so  also  did  a  part  of  the  English  settlers 
outside  of  Virginia.  But  all  these  could  not  fur 
nish  as  many  soldiers  as  the  Covenanters.  In  this 
view  of  the  case,  therefore,  the  fact  must  have  been 
as  stated  by  Douglas  Campbell,  that  the  Cove 
nanters  furnished  to  the  Continental  army  a  ma 
jority  of  its  troops  throughout  the  whole  country 
south  of  Pennsylvania.* 

From  natural  causes  this  people  at  an  early  day 
after  their  arrival  in  the  Colonies  seemed  to  set 
their  face  toward  the  South.  This  is  partly  ex 
plained  by  the  fact  that  the  Quakers  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  a  majority  of  them  having  first  landed  there 

*  Campbell's  Puritan,  Vol.  II,  490,  491,  and  notes. 
9 


106  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

on  coming  to  this  country,  were  unfriendly,  and 
did  all  in  their  power  to  drive  them  southward  or 
west  of  the  Alleghanies.  Many  of  them,  from  this 
cause,  were  forced  by  the  hard  terms  of  James 
Logan,  the  agent  and  secretary  of  the  Proprietary 
Government,  to  seek  homes  in  the  western  part  of 
Pennsylvania.  He  spoke  of  them  as  "  audacious 
and  disorderly,"  and  of  their  coming  "  where  they 
were  not  wanted."  The  English  authorities  also 
persecuted  and  misrepresented  them.* 

It  happened  that  many  of  them  were  driven  out  of 
the  State.  Numerous  as  were  those  who  remained, 
a  much  larger  number,  perhaps,  turned  Southward 
toward  Maryland,  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and 
Georgia.  The  South  held  out  splendid  attractions 
to  them.  Says  McMaster  on  this  subject :  "  The 
reason  is  obvious.  The  Southern  Colonies  had 
long  before  the  Revolution  become  renowned  as 
the  seat  of  a  lucrative  agriculture.  Nowhere 
could  such  tobacco  be  raised  as  was  annually 
grown  on  the  banks  of  the  Rappahannock,  .the 
Potomac,  and  the  James.  The  best  rice  on  the 
English  market  came  from  the  swamps  of  the 
Carolinas.  Georgia  was  already  famous  for  pitch, 
for  indigo,  for  tar.  New  England,  on  the  other 

*  Proceedings  of  Scotch-Irish  Congress,  Vol.  Ill,  132. 


THE  COVENANTERS  IN  THE  SOUTH.       107 

hand,  produced  scarce  enough  corn  and  rye  fertile 
needs  of  her  citizens."  * 

The  climate  in  the  South  was  mild  and  delight 
ful.  It  was  especially  inviting  to  men  who  must 
necessarily  be  exposed  to  the  weather  wherever 
they  might  go  until  they  could  build  little  homes 
for  themselves.  The  soil  was  fertile  and  gener 
ously  yielded  every  thing  needed  to  satisfy  the 
wants  of  a  plain  people.  So,  at  an  early  day,  the 
Southern  Colonies  teemed  with  these  hardy,  in 
dustrious  Covenanters.  Wherever  they  went,  in 
the  South,  they  met  others  of  their  race,  who, 
having  landed  at  Southern  ports,  were  working 
toward  the  interior  of  the  country. 

In  the  light  of  these  facts,  it  is  apparent  why,  in 
1775,  these  Colonies,  as  we  have  seen,  contained 
more  than  one-half  of  the  population  of  the  entire 
country,  and  why  more  than  one-half  of  those 
friendly  to  the  American  cause  were  of  Covenanter 
blood. 

Climate  and  soil,  as  well  as  a  vast  interior 
country,  open  to  settlement,  gave  promise  of  that 
peace,  freedom,  and  security  which  they  were  so 
earnestly  seeking. 

Oglethorpe's  Colony  failed  in  Georgia  in  1752. 
The  New  England  Colony  at  Sunbury  also  failed. 

*  History  of  People,  U.  S.,  Vol.  I,  9. 


108  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

Then  came  the  Covenanters  "  from  the  mountain 
and  Piedmont  regions  of  the  Carolinas  and  Vir 
ginia,"  and  filled  all  Middle  Georgia.  This  race 
has  never  failed.  It  has  gone  on  from  the  day  of 
its  arrival,  in  Georgia,  with  that  energy,  intelli 
gence,  and  persistence  so  peculiar  to  it,  building 
up  the  State  in  its  material  resources,  in  intellectual 
achievements,  in  moral  and  religious  works,  and  in 
molding  and  shaping  its  institutions,  so  that  to-day 
its  pre-eminence  among  Southern  States  is  ac 
knowledged  by  all  the  world.* 

Douglas  Campbell  calls  the  Covenanters,  or,  as 
he  designates  them,  the  Scotch-Irish,  "  the  Puritans 
of  the  South."  It  is  not  well  to  thus  confound 
these  two  great  peoples.  Though  the  English  and 
the  Scotch  people  were  originally  largely  of  the 
same  blood,  they  early  became  separated  into  two 
distinct  people,  each  with  peculiar  characteristics 
of  its  own.  It  will  be  conceded  that  in  certain  re 
spects  there  were  some  striking  resemblances  be 
tween  them,  especially  between  the  early  Puritans 
and  the  Covenanters.  But  the  points  of  dissim- 
ilaritv  are  more  numerous  and  more  marked  than 


*  Fora  particular  account  of  this  settlement  and  the  achieve 
ment  of  the  Covenanters  in  Georgia,  I  refer  the  reader  to  an 
able  address  by  Patrick  Calhoun  before  the  Scotch-Irish  Con 
gress  at  Atlanta,  in  1892,  Vol.  VI,  136. 


THE  COVENANTERS  IN  THE  SOUTH.       109 

those  of  resemblance.  In  the  stern  austerity  of 
their  religion,  and  in  the  somberness  of  their  lives — 
in  a  word,  in  the  outward  aspect  of  religious  life, 
they  seemed  to  be  very  much  alike.  And  yet  the 
traits  which  distinguished  the  one  from  the  other 
were  clear,  striking,  and  manifest.  This  became 
the  more  evident,  perhaps,  after  each  had  left  its 
native  land,  and  had  found  a  new  home  for  itself 
where  its  natural  tendencies  had  room  for  develop 
ment.  The  Puritan  was  an  Englishman,  with 
English  tastes,  ideas,  and  habits.  In  common  with 
his  countrymen,  he  believed  in  caste,  in  social  dis 
tinctions,  and  in  the  inequality  of  men.  In  religion, 
the  Puritan  believed  with  all  the  earnestness  of  his 
strong  nature  that  he  was  right,  and,  so  believing,  he 
used  the  whole  powTer  of  the  Church  and  the  State 
in  enforcing  conformity  to  it.  He  permitted  no 
dissent.  In  his  view  there  must  be  universal  con 
formity,  banishment,  the  whipping-post,  or  the 
gibbet.  The  State  was  merely  the  ally  of  the 
Church,  useful  only  to  enforce  its  decrees  and  dog 
mas.  The  latter  was  supreme  over  the  minds,  the 
consciences,  and  the  bodies  of  men.  This  was  the 
Church  polity  of  Puritanism  in  Massachusetts. 
The  Puritans  had  not  learned  the  lesson  left  to  the 
world  by  Charles  Y  of  Spain,  who,  after  his  abdi 
cation,  spent  the  evening  of  his  life  in  a  vain  at- 


110  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

tempt  to  make  two  watches  run  alike.  While  a 
monarch,  he  had  used  all  the  vast  power  of  his 
great  kingdom,  and  all  the  refined  cruelties  of  the 
Inquisition,  tiying  to  force  his  millions  of  subjects 
into  absolute  uniformity  in  religious  belief;  that  is, 
to  force  all  men  to  see,  feel,  and  think,  and,  as  it 
were,  to  run  alike. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Covenanter  demanded  in 
the  Colonies  total  freedom  of  religion  from  the 
control  of  the  State.  He  denied  the  authority  of 
the  magistrate,  in  any  matter  whatever,  to  inter 
fere  with  conscience,  religious  beliefs,  or  religious 
practices.  The  religion  of  men  should  be,  he  in 
sisted,  as  free  as  air,  or  the  water  of  the  hillside 
brook.  As  to  Government,  he  was  Democratic  in 
all  his  ideas.  In  his  long  experience,  he  had  seen 
the  arrogance  and  the  insolence  of  caste,  he  had 
felt  its  power  and  its  enmity,  and  had  come  to  hate 
it  with  all  the  strength  of  his  soul.  By  reason  of 
centuries  of  ill  treatment  and  persecution,  he  hated 
England  and  every  thing  English  as  he  hated  no 
other  country  or  people.  Of  all  the  people  in  the 
Colonies,  he  was  perhaps  the  least  affected  by 
English  ideas.  It  thus  appears  that  the  differences 
in  thought,  habits,  and  in  religious  practices  be 
tween  the  Puritans  and  the  Covenanters  were  wide, 
radical,  and  fundamental.  So,  to  designate  the 


THE  COVENANTERS  IN  THE  SOUTH.       Ill 

Covenanters,  or  the  Scotch-Irish,  by  the  name  of 
Puritan,  is  to  confound  race  history  and  race  dis 
tinctions. 

Before  closing  this  chapter,  I  wish  to  call  atten 
tion  to  the  singular  fact,  that  in  the  Revolution^ 
Massachusetts  furnished  a  larger  number  of  men 
to  the  Continental  army,  in  proportion  to  popula 
tion,  than  any  other  Colony.  It  is  remarkable, 
that  she  sent  more  troops  into  the  army  than  the 
six  Southern  Colonies  combined.  The  number  of 
soldiers  from  Massachusetts  was  twice  as  large  as 
that  from  Virginia,  the  leader  of  the  Southern 
Colonies,  though  the  population  of  the  latter  was 
nearly  double  that  of  the  former.*  How  can 
these  remarkable  facts  be  explained?  Perhaps 
they  are  incapable  at  this  late  date  of  a  satisfactory 
explanation.  They  seem  to  emphasize  the  fact  that 
there  was  a  much  more  powerful  tory,  or  English, 
influence  in  the  Southern  Colonies  than  has  gene 
rally  been  supposed.  They,  the  tories,  were  not  so 
numerous  in  New  England  as  in  the  South.  Per 
haps  the  latter  fact  can  be  accounted  for  in  part  by 
the  feeble  condition  of  the  English  Church  there. 
In  all  the  Southern  Colonies,  however,  which  were 
principally  settled  at  first  by  Englishmen,  that 

*  University  of  Virginia  Magazine,  April,  1894,  p.  308  ;  Camp 
bell's  Puritan,  Vol.  II,  499. 


112  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

church  had  a  large  following.  If  therefore,  there 
were  but  few  tories  in  New  England,  and  if  they 
were  equal  in  number  to  the  computation  of  John 
Adams,  in  the  entire  population  of  the  country, 
then  it  would  seem  that  in  the  Colonies  south  of 
New  England  they  must  have  constituted  nearly 
or  quite  one-half  of  the  population.  If  this  were 
the  case,  the  people  who  were  friendly  to  the 
American  cause,  and  from  whom  soldiers  could  be 
enlisted  for  the  army,  were  not  nearly  so  numerous 
as  indicated  by  the  total  population,  This  was  un 
questionably  true  in  a  large  measure. 

Perhaps  another  reason  may  have  some  force  in 
it.  The  warfare  conducted  by  the  tories  was 
largely  of  a  predatory  or  guerrilla  character.  They 
preyed  on  Whig  farms  and  settlements,  and  often 
on  the  helpless  families  of  the  patriots  who  were 
absent  in  the  army.  The  outrages  they  committed 
were  brutal  and  diabolical.  Bitter  as  we  some 
times  suppose  the  Civil  War  of  1861-1865  to  have 
been,  it  wTas,  in  comparison  with  the  deadly  strife 
of  the  Southern  patriots  and  the  tories,  during  the 
Revolution,  as  the  gentleness  of  the  dove  to  the 
fierceness  of  the  vulture.  This  kind  of  warfare  in 
the  South,  often  made  it  necessary  for  the  patriots 
to  remain  at  home,  to  guard  against  the  violent 


THE  COVENANTERS  IN  THE  SOUTH.       113 

outbreaks  of  the  lories.     On  this  subject  a  recent 
historian  says : 

"  Throughout  that  State  (Georgia),  and  in  South 
and  North  Carolina,  there  broke  out  a  partisan 
warfare  which  had  no  parallel  in  any  other  part  of 
the  country.  The  loyal  and  the  patriot  parties 
were  so  nearly  equally  divided  that  each  was  con 
fident  of  gaining  the  ascendency,  and  the  bitter 
ness  of  personal  detestation  intensified  to  cruelty 
the  evils  of  ordinary  war.  A  district  of  country 
remained  loyal  or  patriotic  so  long  as  it  was  oc 
cupied  by  the  troops  of  either  one  side  or  the 
other.  Citizens  served  as  militia  when  organized 
militia  operations  promised  success;  where  success 
seemed  hopeless,  or  protection  was  no  longer 
afforded  by  the  presence  of  regular  troops,  they 
fled  to  the  swamps  and  the  woods,  and  carried  on 
a  murderous  and  predatory  warfare  against  their 
neighbors  on  the  other  side.  .  .  .  Nowhere 
else,  except  to  a  limited  degree  in  Central  New 
York,  was  the  war  so  entirely  a  desperate  civil 
war,  where  neighbor  was  arrayed  in  deadly  hatred 
against  neighbor,  each  holding  his  life  at  the  price 
of  sleepless  vigilance,  each  knowing  that  the  death 
of  the  other  was  his  only  security."* 

*  Bryant's  Popular  History  United  States,  Vol.  Ill,  613.  See 
also  King's  Mountain  and  its  Heroes. 


114     COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

In  this  way,  tens  of  thousands  of  men,  doubtless, 
who  did  not  belong  to  the  Continental  army,  and 
whose  names  did  not  appear  on  its  rolls,  took  part 
in  the  war,  either  regularly  or  occasionally,  from 
its  inception  to  its  close.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
a  single  private  of  the  army  of  Sevier,  Campbell 
and  Shelby,  who  helped  to  win  the  signal  victory 
of  King's  Mountain,  and  who  fought  in  many 
other  battles,  can  be  found  among  the  records  of 
the  war.  Besides  all  this,  from  Western  Pennsyl 
vania  to  Florida,  all  along  the  frontiers  of  Penn 
sylvania,  Virginia,  Kentucky,  North  and  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia,  there  were  thousands  of 
men  who  were  kept  constantly  in  the  field,  or  in  a 
state  of  preparation  for  defense,  against  the  mur 
derous  warfare  waged  upon  the  infant  settlements 
by  the  powerful  Indian  tribes  of  the  South  and 
West.  And  these  men,  who  thus  defended  and 
saved  the  West  and  the  South-west,  though  scarcely 
known  to  history,  and  perhaps  not  known  at  all  on 
the  rolls  of  the  war,  were  as  really  and  efficiently 
fighting  the  battles  of  the  Revolution  as  were  the 
soldiers  under  Washington. 

So,  it  may  well  be  doubted,  whether,  in  all  the 
Southern  Colonies,  where  these  conflicts  with 
tories,  British,  and  Indians  were  taking  place, 
there  was  a  single  Covenanter  or  patriot  who  was 


THE    COVENANTERS   IN    THE    SOUTH.  115 

not  under  arras  a  part  of  his  time,  though  only  a 
small  percentage  of  the  entire  population  would 
seem  by  the  records  to  have  been  in  the  regular 
Continental  army. 

There  was  another  reason  why  Massachusetts 
furnished  more  men  to  the  Continental  army  than 
the  Southern  Colonies,  and  that  was  this :  The 
storm  of  war  first  burst  on  that  State.  Suddenly 
Boston  found  her  commerce  destroyed,  herself  cut 
off  from  the  sea,  and  her  people  besieged.  The 
blow  was  as  terrible  as  it  was  sudden.  Quickly 
the  people  flew  to  arms.  All  "New  England  rallied 
for  the  defense  of  Boston.  The  questions  at  issue 
involved  not  only  the  liberties  of  the  people,  but 
the  privileges,  the  trade,  and  the  commercial  inde 
pendence  of  Boston,  and  other  coast  towns.  The 
seat  of  war  was  there.  No  such  gloomy  threaten- 
ings  at  that  time  hung  over  any  other  city  or  State, 
and  never  did  exist  in  some  of  the  Colonies.  And 
so,  until  near  the  close  of  the  war,  New  England 
was  either  the  theater  of  active  operations,  or  the 
enemy  was  not  so  far  removed  from  her  but  that 
he  might  return  to  her  territory  again.  Her  citi 
zens  remained  in  the  army,  or  in  a  state  of  prepa 
ration,  all  the  time. 

But,  after  all  has  been  said  that  can  be  in  ex 
planation  of  the  fact  I  have  been  considering,  it 


116  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

would  be  both  unjust  and  uncandid  not  to  acknowl 
edge  in  the  amplest  terms  the  extraordinary  zeal 
and  patriotism  displayed  by  the  people  of  Massa 
chusetts  during  the  Revolution.  The  period  from 
1761  to  1783  forms  an  illuminated  chapter  in  her 
history,  written  in  letters  of  gold,  and  resplendent 
in  eloquence,  courage,  patriotism,  and  sacrifices. 
How  warm  and  bright  when  compared  with  the 
dreariness  of  her  "  glacial  period."  "  Her  ice  age  "- 
sterile,  forbidding,  unproductive,  her  history  dotted 
only  with  boulders  and  stunted  growth — was  gone.* 
The  "florescent  period"  had  come. 

•''Charles  Francis  Adams's  "Massachusetts;  Its  Historians 
and  Its  History,"  107. 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     117 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER. 

Covenanters  left  out  of  consideration  by  writers  and  speakers — 
The  most,  numerous  of  the  classes — Covenanter  ideas  pre 
vailed  in  Virginia — John  Knox's  declaration— Cavaliers 
the  ruling  class  in  Virginia — Political  and  religious 
opinions — Bloody  penal  Code — Religious  disabilities — 
Early  inhabitants — Many  densely  ignorant — Sir  William 
Berkeley,  Governor,  on  education— Education  neglected — 
Life  among  the  upper  classes — Feasting,  frolicking, 
drinking  and  gambling— Dissipation  of  the  Clergy — 
Cruelty  to  dissenters — Gloomy  condition  of  the  Colony — 
The  Covenanters  appear  in  "the  Colony — They  erect 
Churches,  start  schools  and  spread  westward— Patrick 
Henry — His  origin — Offers  Resolutions  in  the  House  of 
Burgesses  denouncing  Stamp  Act — His  speech  on — The 
Country  electrified — Thomas  Jefferson — Becomes  a  re 
former — The  Presbytery  of  Hanover  sends  a  petition  to 
the  Legislature  asking  for  freedom  of  speech — Then  a 
second,  a  third,  a  fourth,  a  fifth  and  a  sixth — They  at 
last  triumph — Bitterness  of  Mr.  Jefferson  toward  the 
Presbyterians — Was  a  freethinker. 

Both  writers  and  public  speakers  have  long  been 
in  the  habit  of  dividing  the  men  who  have  shaped 
and  molded  the  institutions  of  this  country  and 
guided  its  destinies  into  two  classes,  the  Puritans 
and  the  Cavaliers,  the  one  the  representative  of 
Northern  thought  and  civilization,  and  the  other 
of  Southern.  This  leaves  entirely  out  of  con- 


118     COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

sideration  the  Covenanters,  the  most  numerous 
and  in  many  respects  the  greatest  of  the  three 
races.  At  the  time  of  the  Involution,  as  has  been 
shown,  the  men  of  Covenanter  blood  were  scat 
tered  every-where  in  the  Colonies,  and  were  es 
pecially  numerous  in  all  the  region  south  of  New 
York.  It  seems  reasonably  clear  that  when  the 
Quakers  lost  their  influence  in  Pennsylvania,  by 
reason  of  their  opposition  to  separation  from 
Britain,  the  Covenanters  became  ascendant  in  the 
councils  of  that  State,  and  thenceforward  mainly 
controlled  its  destiny.  In  Virginia,  it  was  not  the 
thoughts  and  opinions  of  the  Cavalier  which 
mainly  guided  that  Colony  in  the  great  crisis  of 
1775-6  and  that  were  incorporated  into  the  frame 
work  of  her  government.  Cavalier  thought, 
forms  and  principles,  both  in  State  and  Church, 
largely  passed  away  with  the  opening  of  the 
great  Revolution.  When  Jefferson,  Wythe,  Ma 
son,  and  others,  were  engaged  in  their  important 
work  of  purging  the  constitution  and  the  statutes 
of  the  State  of  the  odious  penalties  and  disabilities, 
in  reference  to  religious  worship,  imposed  on  dis 
senters  by  the  established  church,  they  were  un 
doing  the  work,  hoary  with  age  and  wrong,  of  the 
Cavaliers,  and  substituting  the  ideas  and  prin 
ciples  of  the  Covenanters.  The  highest  and  the 


THE    COVENANTER    AND    THE    CAVALIER.  119 

best  thoughts  of  Virginia,  the  leading  ideas  in 
corporated  into  her  government,  as  well  as  into 
the  national  government,  were  Covenanter  rather 
than  Cavalier  thought. 

It  little  matters  by  whom  these  thoughts  and 
principles  were  put  into  organic  form,  whether  by 
those  of  Covenanter  blood,  such  as  Patrick  Henry 
and  Edmond  Randolph,  whether  by  the  half  Cove 
nanter  Thomas  Jefferson,  or  whether  by  James 
Madison,  the  disciple  of  John  Witherspoon  in  his 
political  education.  Each  and  all  of  them  had 
caught  the  spirit  and  the  ideas  of  the  great  Cove 
nanter,  John  Knox.  Hear  him  as  he  spoke  two 
hundred  years  before : 

"  The  authority  of  kings  and  princes  was  origi 
nally  derived  from  the  people ;  that  the  former 
are  not  superior  to  the  latter  collectively  con 
sidered;  that  if  the  rulers  become  tyrannical,  or 
employ  their  power  for  the  destruction  of  their 
subjects,  they  may  be  lawfully  controlled,  and 
proving  incorrigible,  may  be  deposed  by  the  com 
munity  as  the  superior  power,  and  that  tyrants 
may  be  judicially  proceeded  against  even  to  a 
capital  punishment."* 

The  ruling  class  in  Virginia  from  its  earliest 
settlement  were  the  Cavaliers.  Some  of  them 

t  The  Scotch-Irish  in  America,  Vol.  I,  199. 


120  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

were  of  the  English  nobility.  Most  of  them 
believed  in  an  established  church,  which  should 
be  supreme  over  the  consciences  and  religious 
conduct  of  men,  with  the  king  as  its  spiritual 
head. 

They  had  been  the  adherents  of  Charles  I  in  his 
struggles  with  Parliament  and  the  people  in  1640, 
and  when  he  was  dethroned  and  beheaded  many 
of  them  fled  to  Virginia.  Here  the  Episcopal 
Church  was  established  as  the  only  lawful  church, 
and  all  men,  whether  members  or  not,  or  however 
much  they  might  detest  it,  were  compelled  to  sup 
port  it.  More  than  this,  all  other  religions  were 
forbidden.  One  of  Patrick  Henry's  most  thrilling 
speeches  was  made  in  1763,  in  defending  three 
Baptist  preachers,  who  were  indicted  as  "  dis 
turbers  of  the  peace"  for  preaching,  as  Henry 
expressed  it,  "the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God." 

The  penal  code,  probably  adopted  in  England, 
for  the  Colony  of  Virginia,  and  in  force  from  the 
earliest  days,  was,  in  reference  to  moral  and  relig 
ious  duties,  perhaps,  the  bloodiest  ever  enacted  by 
men.  By  it  adultery  was  punishable  by  death,  as 
it  was  subsequently  in  Massachusetts  and  Connec 
ticut.  Under  Dale's  Code,  absence  from  church 
on  Sunday,  without  a  good  excuse,  was  made  a 
capital  offense.  The  penalty  of  death  was  pro- 


THR  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     121 

vided  for  all  those  who  should  blaspheme  the  name 
of  the  Creator,  and  for  those  who  refused  obe 
dience  to  their  ministers,  while  persons  who  ab 
sented  themselves  from  the  church  on  \veek  days 
were  to  serve  in  the  galleys  for  six  months.*  These 
laws  of  Cavalier  Virginia  were  never  repealed  nor 
modified  until  after  the  Revolution,  though  not  al 
ways  enforced. 

The  foregoing  penalties  were  only  a  few  of  the 
many  which  enslaved  men  in  Old  Virginia.  Hun 
dreds,  perhaps  thousands,  of  persons — Quakers, 
Baptists,  Moravians,  and  doubtless  also  many  un 
godly,  un sanctified  fellows  who  did  not  wish  to  row 
in  the  galleys  for  six  months,  for  being  absent 
from  church  on  weekdays — were  driven  out  of  the 
Colony,  and  fled  to  North  Carolina. 

By  1750,  persecution  and  narrowness  had  nearly 
run  their  dark  course  in  Massachusetts  and  Con 
necticut,  but  in  Virginia,  on  the  contrary,  the  es 
tablished  church  grew  more  intolerant  as  it  grew 
stronger.f  It  was  the  stifling  effect  of  the  prac 
tice  of  the  Cavalier  Church  on  the  young  mind  of 
Madison,  which,  in  1774,  made  him  write  to  a 

*  Campbell's  Puritan,  Vol.  II,  415.     Citing  Doyle's  English 
Colonies  in  America,  115,  139. 
t  Parton's  Life  of  Jefferson,  202. 
10 


122  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

Northern  friend  :  "  I  want  again  to  breathe  your 
free  air.  .  .  .  That  diabolical,  hell-conceived 
principle  of  persecution  rages  among  some."  .  .  . 
He  then  goes  on  to  tell  that  there  were  at  that 
time,  "in  a  neighboring  county,  not  less  than  five 
or  six  well-meaning  men  in  close  jail  for  publish 
ing  their  religious  sentiments."  .  .  .  These 
prisoners  were  Baptists.  Nor  is  it  much  wonder 
that  this  ingenuous  young  man,  on  coining  home 
from  Princeton,  fresh  from  the  teachings  of  the 
grand  old  Covenanter,  John  Witherspoon,  should 
have  expressed  the  opinion  that,  "  if  the  Church  of 
England  had  been  established  and  endowed  in  all 
the  Colonies  as  it  was  in  Virginia,  the  king  would 
have  had  his  way,  and  gradually  reduced  all  Amer 
ica  to  subjection.* 

For  the  first  hundred  years,  the  population  of 
Virginia  dwelt  mostly  in  the  low  country,  in  the 
tide-water  region,  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Lower 
James,  the  Potomac,  the  York,  arid  the  Rappa- 
hannock.  It  consisted  nearly  exclusively  of  En 
glish  gentlemen,  English  clergymen,  some  com 
mon  mechanics  and  laborers,  arid  large  numbers 
of  slaves  and  indented  white  servants.  The  aris 
tocratic  gentlemen  who  first  settled  the  Colony 
were,  as  we  have  said,  nearly  all  adherents,  of 

*  1  Parton,  203. 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     123 

the  king.  They  constituted  the  ruling  class,  though 
perhaps  a  minority  of  the  people.  Many  of  this 
upper  class  were  densely  ignorant.  The  lower 
orders  were  entirely  without  education.*  In  1671, 
Sir  William  Berkeley,  the  Governor  of  the  Col 
ony,  expressed,  no  doubt,  the  opinions  of  his 
class,  when  he  said :  "  I  thank  God  there  are 
no  free  schools  or  printing,  and  I  hope  we  shall 
not  have  them  these  hundred  years.  For  learning 
has  brought  heresy  and  disobedience  and  sects 
into  the  world,  and  printing  has  divulged  them. 
God  keep  us  from  both." 

It  would  be  very  hard  for  the  greatest  thinker  of 
the  day  to  say  so  much  in  favor  of  education,  in  so 
few  words,  as  was  done  by  this  Cavalier  in  the 
words  just  quoted,  though  he  meant  them  quite 
otherwise.  With  Cavalier  ascendency  and  rule, 
education,  except  writh  the  higher  classes,  was  neg 
lected.  It  was  thought  important  by  many  only 
to  educate  the  eldest  son,  who  was  to  inherit  the 
estate,  sit  with  the  justices,  and  represent  his 
county  in  the  House  of  Deputies.  He  was  sent  to 
William  and  Mary,  an  institution  under  the  patron 
age  and  control  of  the  Cavaliers.  All  persons  wrho 
were  destined  for  the  church  and  bar  were  sent  to 
this  college,  but  the  great  body  of  the  people,  in- 

*  Lecky's  England  in  theEighteenth  Century,  Vol.  III. 


124  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

eluding  a  large  number  of  the  first  families,  grew 
up  in  ignorance.  In  the  upper  classes,  life  was 
spent,  to  a  large  extent,  in  drinking  and  feasting, 
in  fox-hunting  and  horse-racing,  in  visiting  and 
playing  cards,  and  in  attending  balls,  where  the 
stately  minuette  was  danced  by  the  grave  seniors 
and  the  jig  by  the  young  arid  volatile. 

The  clergymen  had  fallen  into  such  habits  as  to 
become,  as  Bishop  Meade,  of  the  establishment  ex 
pressed  it,  "the  laughing  stock  of  the  Colony." 
A  few  were  good  and  learned  men,  and  did  their 
duty  faithfully,  among  them  Bishop  Meade  him 
self.  Says  a  pungent  writer:  "The  greater  num 
ber  lived  as  idle  hangers  on  of  the  wealthier 
houses,  assisting  their  fellow  idlers,  the  planters, 
to  kill  time  and  run  through  their  estates.*  .  . 
Sometimes  the  clergyman  was  the  president  of  the 
jockey  club,  and  personally  assisted  in  the  details 
of  the  race  course.  It  was  common  for  them  to 
follow  in  the  chase  ;  they  figured  as  the  patrons  of 
balls,  and  were  rather  noted  for  their  skill  at  cards.* 
But  the  great  failing  with  the  clergymen  was  their 
drunkenness,  which  helped  even  in  that  age  and  in 
that  Colony  of  indulgence  and  excess,  to  bring  re 
proach  on  the  church  and  on  religion. "f 

*  Parton's  Jefferson,  Vol.  I,  56.  t  Id.,  202. 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     125 

Bishop  Meade  bore  unequivocal  testimony  to 
this  fact. 

How  cruel  the  Cavalier  laws  were  against  all 
who  did  not  conform  to  the  faith  and  the  ritual  of 
the  church,  and  how  dissenters  were  driven  out  of 
the  Colony  to  avoid  the  dreadful  penalties  im 
posed  on  them  has  been  shown.  Says  a  writer  : 
"  At  the  time  when  the  Yankee  magistrates  were 
hanging  witches  and  whipping  Quakers,  Virginia 
justices  of  the  peace  were  putting  Quakers  in  the 
pillory  for  keeping  their  hats  on  in  church,  and 
were  appointing  jurors  of  women  to  examine  for 
witch-marks  on  the  bodies  of  old  women."  *  John 
Burk,  a  historian  of  Virginia,  intimates  that  a 
woman  was  burned  to  death  in  Princess  Ann 
County  for  witch -craft,  and  adds  that  in  all  proba 
bility  the  case  was  not  solitary. f 

The  condition  of  things  in  Virginia  before  the 
Revolution  was  indeed  gloomy  and  almost  hope 
less.  All  freedom  of  speech,  of  conscience,  of 
mind,  soul  and  body  was  fettered  and  tied  up,  as 
with  manacles,  by  the  laws  and  the  religion  of  the 
aristocratic  Cavaliers.  All  growth  was  such  as 
came  only  in  spite  of  repression.  Population  in 
creased  because  the  climate  and  the  soil  were  the 
most  inviting  perhaps  on  the  continent.  No  colony 

*  Parton's  Jefferson,  Vol.  I,  000.  t  Id.  202. 


126  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

had  so  many  natural  advantages.  Her  resources 
were  prodigious.  The  cultivation  of  tobacco,  like 
that  of  cotton  at  a  later  day  in  the  South,  was  sup 
posed  to  lead  to  speedy  fortune.  Thousands  hurried 
over  from  England  to  repair  their  broken  estates  by 
engaging  in  its  culture.  Baptists  and  Quakers  came 
into  the  Colony  notwithstanding  the  bloody  laws 
existing  against  them.  But  the  great  source  from 
which  the  population  was  enlarged,  was  the  con 
stant  and  never-ceasing  stream  of  Covenanter  im 
migration  which  commenced  pouring  into  the 
Colony  about  1732. 

In  the  meantime  bigotry  and  Cavalier  incapac 
ity  rested  like  a  nightmare  on  the  Colony.  The 
lower  class  of  white  men,  ignorant  and  lazy,  bor 
dered  on  a  state  of  barbarity.*  How  could  they 
have  been  otherwise?  Who  had  held  out  a  help 
ing  hand  to  them?  What  elevating  example  had 
been  set  before  them  ? 

During  the  more  than  one  hundred  and  sixty 
years  of  Colonial  existence  and  Cavalier  domina 
tion  in  Virginia,  not  a  single  great  name  appears 
in  her  history ;  not  one  in  letters,  in  art,  in  science, 
in  invention  or  in  war.  Not  a  single  great  deed 
or  event  marks  this  period.  The  only  thing  of 
interest  to  the  historian  was  the  revolt  of  Nathan- 
*  Lecky's  England  in  theEighteeuth  Century,  Vol.  III. 


THE    COVENANTER    AND    THE    CAVALIER.  127 

iel  Bacon,  in  1676,  against  the  wrongs  that  the 
people  endured  at  the  hands  of  the  Cavalier  Gov 
ernor,  Sir  William  Berkeley.  The  attempt  failed, 
because  it  was  premature  by  a  hundred  years. 
Bacon  died  just  as  the  rebellion  was  declining,  and 
in  that  way  escaped  the  fate  reserved  for  him, 
while  his  adviser,  William  Drummond,  a  Cove 
nanter,  who  had  been  the  first  Governor  of  North 
Carolina,  was  summarily  hanged. 

There  is,  however,  a  bright  gleam  of  sunshine 
apparent  above  this  gloom,  lighting  up  that  dark, 
dreary  waste,  but  for  which  even  the  most  faith 
ful  and  obedient  children  of  the  church  could  not 
have  endured  the  oppression,  and  that  is,  that  the 
laws  in  reference  to  conformity  and  religious  du 
ties  were  not  rigidly  enforced.  Their  violation 
was  often  secretly  winked  at  and  passed  over,  or 
the  Colony  would  have  become  a  Golgotha.  The 
Covenanters  were  allowed  to  stretch  along  the 
borders  of  the  northern  and  western  settlements, 
because  they  became  a  protection  for  the  older 
settlements  against  the  hostile  Indians. 

While  the  Cavaliers  of  the  tide-water  country 
were  engaged,  between  1700  and  1775,  in  raising 
and  selling  tobacco,  in  purchasing  and  trading  in 
slaves,  in  hunting  and  horse-racing,  and  in  all  the 
amusements  of  that  rude  age,  the  serious  and  ear- 


128  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

nest  Covenanters,  quietly  passing  over  from  Penn 
sylvania,  where,  as  before  stated,  they  were  not 
well  received  by  the  Quakers,  into  the  rich  and 
beautiful  valleys  of  Virginia,  were  spreading  west- 
wardly  toward  Wheeling,  or  ascending  the  slopes 
of  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  occupying  all  the  fertile 
highlands  of  that  magnificent  country  on  the  east 
side  of  the  mountains.  Finally  they  overleaped 
the  summit  of  the  Alleghanies,  spread  over  their 
western  slopes,  and  occupied  the  beautiful  and 
fertile  country  of  South-west  Virginia. 

While  the  Cavaliers  and  the  clergy  in  Old  Vir 
ginia  were  living  easy  lives  of  indolence  and  lux 
ury,  the  Covenanters  were  felling  the  forests, 
building  cabins  and  houses,  sowing  and  reaping 
with  their  own  hands,  and  engaged  in  all  the  hard 
vocations  incident  to  a  pioneer's  life.  They  were 
occupied  in  making  a  state.  They  were  gather 
ing  around  their  little  homes  all  the  comforts  that 
industry  could  supply  on  the  frontier.  Earnest 
men  they  were.  There  was  little  mirth  or  levity 
among  them.  They  \vere  strong  in  will  and  firm 
in  purpose;  robust,  brave,  brawny,  Sabbath-keep 
ing  and  God-fearing  men.  They  had  a  great  mis 
sion  to  fulfill.  Freedom  of  worship,  freedom  of 
thought,  freedom  of  conscience  were  to  be  estab- 


THE   COVENANTER   AND   THE   CAVALIER.  129 

lished.  Iii  the  wilderness  they  were  to  plant  and 
build  up  civilization.  The  things  which  their 
fathers  had  struggled  for,  they  sought :  "A  free 
State  and  a  free  conscience."  There  was  little 
frolicking  among  these  grave  people.  Serious 
cares  and  duties  demanded  their  attention.  All, 
young  and  old,  male  and  female,  were  as  busy  as 
the  passing  hours,  or  the  flowing  brook. 

Soon  the  rude  church 'edifice  went  up,  then  fol 
lowed  the  log-cabin  school  house.  Of  all  the  men 
in  the  community,  the  minister  was  the  busiest, 
with  preaching,  teaching,  visiting  the  sick,  giving 
advice  as  to  the  affairs  of  the  settlement,  and  at 
odd  hours,  caught  from  other  duties,  laboring  on 
the  farm.  He  was  the  head  man  of  the  neighbor 
hood,  and  his  opinion  was  sought  on  all  points. 
Many  of  these  plain  people,  and  all  of  the  preach 
ers,  were  graduates  from  the  universities  of  Eu 
rope.  They  were  great  scholars  for  that  day. 
Not  only  were  the  churches  and  the  schoolhouses 
to  be  erected,  but  seminaries,  grammar  schools 
and  colleges  were  to  be  provided.  Thus,  in  1747, 
the  rude  structure  of  Liberty  Hall,  since  grown  so 
famous  and  so  great,  arose  in  the  wilderness.  Un 
der  the  fostering  care  of  the  Presbytery  of  Han 
over  it  grew  until  it  became  Washington  College. 
11 


130  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

Liberty  Hall  1  Significant  and  auspicious  name ! 
Truly  it  became  a  light  set  on  a  hill. 

Into  this  region  of  Virginia  came  the  Prestons, 
the  Pattons,  the  Stuarts,  the  Breckin ridges,  the 
Campbells,  the  McDowells,  the  Alexanders,  the 
Blairs,  all  of  Covenanter  stock.  Among  others 
of  this  wonderful  Scotch  people,  there  came  John 
Henry,  an  educated  man,  and  a  nephew  of  the 
great  Scotch  historian,  William  Robertson.  Pat 
rick  Henry  was  his  son.  The  son  learned  a  little 
Latin  and  something  of  English  from  his  father, 
but  he  cared  but  little  for  books.  He  loved  to 
hunt  and  fish  and  frolic,  and  was  indolent  and 
dreamy.  Failing  twice  as  a  merchant,  he  read 
law  six  weeks  and  obtained  a  license.  Soon  he 
gained  great  notoriety  by  his  celebrated  speech  in 
defense  of  the  people,  in  the  "Parsons  case,"  as  it 
is  called.  This  was  a  suit,  and  a  just  one  too,  by 
the  clergy  for  the  tobacco  allowed  by  law  as  their 
salaries,  but  under  the  whirlwind  of  Henry's 
eloquence  the  jury  rendered  an  adverse  verdict. 

In  1765,  Patrick  Henry,  this  backwoodsman, 
dressed  in  home  spun,  took  his  seat  the  second 
time  in  the  House  of  Burgesses.  The  coming 
Revolution  was  casting  forward  its  dark  shadows. 
Soon  the  news  came  that  Parliament  had  passed 
the  Stamp  Act,  taxing  the  Colonies.  Every  re- 


THE    COVENANTER   AND    THE    CAVALIER.  131 

fleeting  mind  saw  that  to  quietly  submit  was  to- 
become  enslaved.  The  Colonies  were  agitated 
from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other.  No 
one  knew  better  than  Henry  that  taxation  with 
out  representation  was  contrary  to  the  natural 
rights  of  men — was  in  fact  tyranny.  He  had 
learned  this  from  his  race  long  before  he  saw  a 
law  book.  2\"o  people  in  the  world  understood 
the  laws  of  natural  right  so  well  at  that  time  as 
the  Covenanters.  They  had,  in  their  hard  ex 
perience,  been  studying  and  asserting  them  for 
more  than  two  centuries.  It  was  the  violation  of 
these  laws  that  caused  the  presence  of  that  long 
stream  of  stern  Covenanters,  constantly  passing 
up  the  valleys  of  Virginia,  moving  westward, 
seeking  homes,  hunting  out  a  place  where  they 
could  have  a  "free  church." 

Henry  waited  for  some  one  of  the  old  members 
to  move  in  the  matter  of  the  Stamp  Act.  They 
held  back.  The  session  was  about  to  close.  Burn 
ing  with  the  fire  of  his  own  patriotic  thoughts, 
he  tore  a  blank  leaf  from  a  law7  book,  and  hur 
riedly  wrote  and  offered  in  the  House  four  resolu 
tions,  containing  the  germ  of  all  that  has  been  or 
can  be  said  on  the  subject.  These  resolutions 
asserted,  in  their  inner  meaning,  the  right  of  the 
people  to  govern  and  to  tax  themselves.  This 


132  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

was  the  key  note  to  the  Revolution,  and  the  real 
meaning  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  It 
was  the  undertone  and  the  interpretation  of  John 
Knox's  propositions,  and  of  his  answer  to  Queen 
Mary.  ISTo  new  doctrine  to  the  Covenanters.  But 
it  startled,  as  from  a  dream,  the  old  Cavaliers  of 
Virginia.  The  debate  that  followed  was  fiery,  and 
as  Mr.  Jefferson  said,  "  most  bloody.''  The  old 
leaders,  Wythe,  Pendleton,  Bland  and  Peyton 
Randolph,  strove  to  defeat  the  resolutions.  But 
nothing  could  resist  the  wild  tempest-like  elo 
quence  of  Henry,  u  the  forest-born  Demosthenes," 
as  Byron  called  him.  As  that  awkward  body 
warmed  and  lifted  itself  up,  it  was  transformed 
by  its  own  inward  spirit  into  one  of  commanding 
grandeur  and  majesty.  That  halting,  stammering 
voice  rose  and  swelled  until  it  now  sounded  like  a 
tempest,  now  it  was  like  the  noise  of  the  storm 
bowing  the  woods  and  the  forests  before  it. 
Finally,  rising  in  the  brilliant  sweep  of  his  oratory 
to  a  climax,  and  stirred  by  his  own  great  spirit,  he 
exclaimed  in  tones  that  thrilled  every  hearer : 
"  Caeser  had  his  Brutus,  Charles  I  had  his  Crom 
well,  and  George  III ."  "  Treason  !  "  shouted 

the  speaker;  "  treason  !  treason  ! !  "  echoed  the  ter 
rified  loyalists  springing  to  their  feet.  "And 
George  III  may  profit  by  their  example,"  con- 


THE    COVENANTER    AND    THE    CAVALIER.  183 

tinned  Henry.  u  If  this  be  treason,  make  the 
most  of  it!" 

The  country  was  electrified  by  the  audacious 
words  of  Henry.  They  rang  and  echoed  through 
the  land.  The  venerable  citadel  of  royal  and 
priestly  bigotry  was,  shattered  to  its  foundation. 
A  new  force  in  government  had  been  evoked — the 
ultimate  power  in  all  free  government — the  sove 
reignty  of  the  people.  In  that  hour  New  Vir 
ginia  was  born,  and  Old  Virginia  commenced  pass 
ing  away.  While  Henry  was  sounding  the  first 
notes  of  the  coming  Revolution  in  Virginia,  James 
Otis  and  John  and  Samuel  Adams  were  doing  the 
same  in  Massachusetts.  This  was  the  first  breach 
in  the  partition  wall  which  separated  the  past — 
dark  with  the  crimes  of  tyranny,  intolerance  and 
bigotry — from  the  future,  already  aglow  with  the 
promise  of  freedom  and  deliverance. 

While  this  declaration  of  the  rights  of  men  was 

O 

being  proclaimed  by  Henry,  there  stood  behind 
the  bar  of  the  House  a  modest  young  law  student, 
cold  and  impassive,  whose  eager  ears  caught  every 
word  as  they  fell  from  the  lips  of  the  great  orator. 
As  he  listens,  he  is  transfixed  and  spellbound. 
This  was  young  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  friend  of 
Henry  then,  and  ever  afterward.  He  was  there 
watching  his  ungainly,  plainly  dressed  friend,  as 


134  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

he  rose  to  make  that  speech  which  has  given  him 
immortality. 

Eleven  years  after  this  time,  this  young  law 
student  of  1765  is  in  the  Legislature  of  the  State, 
himself  now  become  immortal  as  the  author  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  He  is  there  as 
a  Reformer,  associated  with  two  of  the  best  and 
greatest  men  in  Virginia,  George  Wythe  and 
George  Mason.  lie  is  there  to  lift  and  remove  the 
burdens  imposed  on  the  minds,  the  consciences 
and  the  bodies  of  men  by  a  century  and  a  half  of 
Cavalier  misrule  and  priestly  bigotry  and  bitter 
ness.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  the  generous-minded 
Mason  and  the  noble  Wythe,  who  had  emanci 
pated  their  own  slaves,  should  have  been  anxious 
to  aid  in  removing  from  the  statute  book  as  dark 
a  penal  code  as  ever  was  devised  by  the  haughtiest 
oppressors,  and  by  the  narrowest  and  the  bitterest 
sectarians.  But  at  first  it  is  not  so  easy  to  under 
stand  how  Jefferson,  this  half  Randolph,*  half 
Covenanter,  this  vestryman  in  the  established 
church,  should  have  been  a  reformer.  He.  says 
he  learned  his  lessons  of  freedom  from  Coke  on 
Littleton;  others  say  from  the  philosophers  of 
France.  Bat  more  likely  he  unconsciously  im- 


*  Jefferson's    mother    was    a    Randolph.     The    Randolphs 
claimed  descent  from  the  Scottish  Earls  of  Murray.— Parton. 


THE    COVENANTER    AND    THE    CAVALIER.  135 

bibed  them  from  sources  immediately  around  him 
before  he  ever  saw  Coke,  or  he  had  read  a 
word  of  the  writings  of  the  great  encyclopaedists 
of  France,  De  Lambert,  Diderot,  Voltaire,  Rous 
seau,  Turgot  and  others.  He  was  reared  in  the 
country  into  which  the  Covenanters  were  pour 
ing  just  as  he  was  coming  to  manhood.  He 
was  not  ignorant  of  them,  of  their  opinions,  nor 
of  their  history.  He  knew  that  the  strong,  brave, 
educated  people  he  was  every-where  meeting  had 
fled  from  Ireland  to  escape  the  very  evils  then  to 
be  seen  on  every  side  in  his  own  colony.  He  had 
heard  the  red-hot  words  of  Patrick  Henry,  in 
his  memorable  speech,  on  that  May  day  in  1765, 
when  in  the  House  of  Burgesses  he  proclaimed 
the  oracles  and  the  creed  of  his  fathers.  That 
the  words  had  sunk  deep  into  his  mind  there 
is  no  doubt,  so  much  so  that  in  his  old  age 
he  always  warmed  with  enthusiasm  when  re 
ferring  to  that  great  day.  Out  of  his  own  ex 
perience  and  observation,  it  would  seem,  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  would  have  learned,  and  with  his  generous, 
noble  nature,  would  certainly  have  realized  the 
crying  need  of  reform,  wide,  radical  and  universal, 
in  his  own  State,  especially  as  to  liberty  of  con 
science  and  freedom  of  worship.  The  sight  of  a 
poor  Baptist,  or  Quaker,  in  the  pillory,  or  under- 


136     COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

going  the  agony  of  the  whipping  post,  on  account, 
not  of  crime,  but  of  the  neglect  of  some  duty  to 
ward  the  church,  ought  to  have  been  sufficient  to 
keep  him  from  both  sleep  and  rest  until  the  last 
dark  spot  on  the  State  was  forever  washed  out. 
Such  a  sight  might  have  made  the  very  stones  cry 
out  against  the  iniquity  of  such  laws.  We  can 
realize  how  the  picture  must  have  affected  a  phi 
lanthropist  like  Mr.  Jefferson.  Even  the  sight  of 
five  or  six  Baptists  in  "close  jail"  for  "publishing 
their  religious  sentiments"  had  made  the  gentle 
Madison  sigh,  in  1774,  for  the  free  air  of  another 
State. 

But  dull  indeed  Mr.  Jefferson  would  have  been 
if  he  had  not  perceived  in  his  own  mind  the  quick 
ening  spirit  of  the  times,  and  felt  the  trembling  of 
the  approaching  upheaval  in  every  fiber  of  his 
being.  A  new  force  had  entered  the  Colony.  The 
sleepless  Covenanters  had  planted  their  churches 
beyond  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  had  organized  the 
Presbytery  of  Hanover,  and  so  long  as  their  re 
mained  a  wrong  under  which  they  suffered,  they 
wrould  never  cease  to  protest  against  it.  This 
Presbytery,  in  1774,  sent  its  petition  to  the  legisla 
ture,  remonstrating  against  a  bill  devised  to  re 
strict  religious  rights.  It  asked  "for  that  freedom 
in  speaking  and  writing  on  religious  subject 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     137 

which  is  allowed  by  law  to  every  member  of  the 
British  Empire  in  civil  affairs;"  a  sentiment  after 
ward,  on  motion  of  Patrick  Henry,  embodied  in 
the  Virginia  bill  of  rights.* 

In  October,  1776,  there  came  another  memorial 
from  Hanover  Presbytery  to  the  legislature,  which 
was  considered  in  Committee  of  the  whole  House. 
The  result  was,  says  Mr.  Jefferson,  that  "  after 
desperate  contests  in  that  committee  almost  daily 
from  October  llth  to  December  5th,  we  prevailed' 
(only)  so  far  as  to  repeal  the  laws  which  rendered 
criminal  the  maintenance  of  any  religious  opinions, 
and  further  to  exempt  dissenters  from  contribu 
tions  to  the  support  of  the  established  church."* 

What  was  the  necessity  of  debating  and  con 
sidering  for  so  long  a  time  these  simple  proposi 
tion,  presented  by  the  sturdy  Covenanters,  dwell 
ing  beyond  the  mountains?  At  this  day  all 
Christendom  receives  them  as  true.  It  was  the 
last  death  struggle  of  the  old  aristocracy  in  church 
and  state  to  hold  on  to  its  ancient  power. 

Scarcely  had  the  echoes  of  the  debate  over  these 
propositions  died  away,  when  this  same  Hanover 
Presbytery,  from  its  session  near  Liberty  Hall,  in 
1777,  sent  a  third  memorial  to  the  legislature. 
Then  followed  a  fourth,  then  a  fifth,  and  finally 

*  Scotch-Irish  in  America,  Vol.  II,  237. 


138  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

a  sixth.  In  1785,  there  followed  the  "  Covenanter 
Memorial,"  protesting  against  the  incorporation 
of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  the  act,  "provid 
ing  for  the  support  of  religion  hy  taxation." 
The  true  and  the  whole  doctrine  in  reference  to 
the  relation  of  religion  and  the  state  is  contained 
in  these  words.  Said  Rev.  William  Graham  in 
this  memorial: 

"  The  end  of  civil  government  is  security  to  the 
temporal  liberty  and  property  of  mankind,  and  to 
protect  them  in  the  free  exercise  of  religion.  . 
Religion  is  altogether  personal,  and  the  right  of 
exercising  it  inalienable;  and  it  is  not,  can  not.  and 
ought  not  to  be  resigned  to  the  will  of  the  society 
at  large,  and  much  less  to  the  legislature,  which 
derives  its  authority  wholly  from  the  consent  of 
the  people." 

Here  was  sounded  the  key-note  to  the  whole 
question.  And  at  Bethel  Church,  far  over  in  the 
valley  of  Virginia,  the  Covenanters  again  came 
together,  as  they  did  at  Gray  Friars  Church,  in 
1638,  and  ten  thousand  names  were  appended  to 
this  second  league  and  covenant.  And  so  at  last, 
but  not  till  1786,  after  ten  years'  fight,  the  doctrines 
of  the  new  covenant — of  these  backwoods  Cove 
nanters — were  incorporated  into  the  laws  of  Vir- 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     139 

ginia,  and  the  "  act  for  establishing  religious 
liberty,"  became  a  law. 

How  deeply  rooted  in  the  soil  the  old  system  had 
been,  and  how  tenaciously  its  friends  clung  to  it, 
may  be  inferred  by  the  length  of  time  it  took  to 
eradicate  it.  Jefferson  and  his  co-workers,  strong 
and  great  as  they  were,  could  not  have  succeeded 
when  they  did,  long  as  it  was  after  the  Revolution, 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  votes,  the  encourage 
ment  and  the  moral  power  and  force  of  the  Cove 
nanters.  Says  Campbell :  "  In  the  end,  the  work  " 
(the  reform)  "  was  carried  through  by  the  energetic 
efforts  of  the  dissenters,  who  formed  a  majority  of 
the  population,  the  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians  be 
ing  the  leading  element."* 

A  singular  inconsistency  in  Mr.  Jefferson  is  the 
extreme  bitterness  he  manifests  in  his  writings 
against  the  Presbyterians,  i.e.,  "  the  Covenanters." 
In  this  great  struggle,  they  were  his  strongest,  his 
most  advanced  support.  Without  their  aid,  even 
after  his  long  fight,  he  would  have  utterly  failed 
to  remove  the  shackles  put  on  the  minds,  con- 
consciences  and  bodies  of  men,  by  the  very  church 
in  which  he  was  a  vestryman.  It  was  his  efforts 
in  this  great  reform  perhaps,  more  than  any  single 
act  of  his  life  which  gave  him  his  reputation  for 

*  CarnpbellTVol.  II,  492. 


140  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

liberality.  And  yet  he  wrote  of  those  who  gave 
him  his  chief  support,  if  not  his  first  hint  on  the 
subject,  as  a  bitter  and  narrow  religious  zealot 
might  have  done  of  some  opposing  sect,  and  not 
with  the  charity  and  broad-mindedness  expected 
of  a  great  philosopher  and  philanthropist.  He 
knew  how  great  the  work  of  the  Covenanters  had 
been  in  the  Colonies  in  preparing  the  minds  of  the 
people  for  the  Revolution,  and  how7  conspicuous 
and  splendid  had  been  their  record  in  sustaining  it 
with  patriotic  ardor,  and  in  helping  to  carry  it 
fonvard  to  a  triumphant  conclusion.  He  must 
have  realized  that  without  their  co-operation  his 
great  "Declaration"  could  not  have  been  made 
good  by  arms  before  the  nations  of  the  wrorld,  and 
that  in  that  event  his  own  name  would  have  gone 
down  in  history  as  that  of  a  traitor.  He  knew  of 
the  intelligence  of  the  Covenanters  and  of  their 
great  value  as  citizens.  He  knew  their  sturdy 
virtues,  the  purity  of  their  lives,  their  respect  for 
law,  and  their  reverence  for  all  things  sacred.  He 
knew  they  were  the  best  educated,  and  the  most 
sober  and  industrious  people  of  Virginia,  and  that 
their  influence  was  always  on  the  side  of  law  and 
good  government.  Yet,  in  his  later  years,  he 
wrote  of  them,  as  Presbyterians,  as  he  might  have 
done  of  almost  worthless  outcasts,  and  with  a 


THE    COVENANTER    AND    THE    CAVALIER.     '       141 

bitterness  and  a  narrowness  out  of  keeping  with 
his  advanced  age  and  his  exalted  standing.  This 
may  be  accounted  for  in  part,  when  it  is  'kept  in 
mind  that  he  became  what  is  known  as  a  .free 
thinker  in  religion,  though  he  probably  remained 
a  verstryman  in  the  established  church  as  long  as 
he  lived.* 


*  In  1887,  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  to  Peter  Carr  as  follows  :  "  Fix 
Reason  firmly  in  her  seat,  and  call  to  her  tribunal  every  fact, 
every  opinion.  Question  with  boldness  even  the  existence  of 
a  God ;  because,  if  there  be  one,  he  must  more  approve 
of  the  homage  of  reason  than  of  blindfolded  fear.  You  will 
naturally  examine  first  the  religion  of  your  own  country. 
Read  the  Bible  then  as  you  would  Livy  or  Tacitus.  For  ex 
ample,  in  the  Book  of  Joshua  we  are  told  that  the  sun  stood 
still  for  several  hours.  Were  we  to  read  that  fact  in  Livy  or 
Tacitus  we  should  class  it  with  their  showers  of  blood,  speak 
ing  statues,  beasts,  etc.  But  it  is  said  that  the  writer  of  that 
book  was  inspired.  Examine,  therefore,  candidly,  what  evi 
dence  there  is  of  his  having  been  inspired.  The  pretension 
is  entitled  to  your  inquiry  because  millions  believe  it.  On  the 
other  hand,  you  are  astronomer  enough  to  know  how  con 
trary  it  is  to  the  law  of  nature.  You  will  next  read  the  New 
Testament.  It  is  the  history  of  a  personage  called  Jesus. 
Keep  in  your  eye  the  opposite  pretensions:  (1)  Of  those  who 
say  he  was  begotten  by  God,  born  of  a  virgin,  suspended  and 
reversed  the  laws  of  nature  at  will  and  ascended  bodily  into 
heaven,  and  (2)  of  those  who  say  he  was  a  man  of  illegitimate 
birth,  of  a  benevolent  heart,  enthusiastic  mind,  who  set  out 
with  pretensions  to  divinity,-  ended  in  believing  them,  and 


142        *   COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

was  punished  capitally  for  sedition,  by  being  gibbeted,  ac 
cording  to  the  Roman  law,  which  punished  the  first  commission 
of  that  offense  by  whipping,  the  second  by  exile,  or  death  in 
furca.  .  .  .  Do  not  be  frightened  from  this  inquiry  by  any  fear 
of  its  consequences.  If  it  ends  in  belief  that  there  is  no  God, 
you  will  find  incitements  to  virtue  in  the  comfort  and  the 
pleasure  you  will  find  in  its  exercise,  and  the  love  of  others 
which  it  will  procure  you.  If  you  find  reason  to  believe 
that  there  is. a  God,  a  consciousness  that  you  are  acting 
under  his  eye  and  he  approves  of  you,  will  be  a  vast  ad 
ditional  incitement;  if  that  Jesus  was  also  a -God,  you  will 
be  comforted  by  a  belief  of  his  aid  and  love.  Your  own 
reason  is  the  only  oracle  given  you  by  heaven.  And  you  are 
answerable,  not  for  the  Tightness,  but  the  uprightness  of  the 
decision."  Parton's  Life  of  Jefferson,  335. 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER,     143 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER CONTINUED. 

Love  of  Church  and  loyalty  to  King  in  Virginia — Love  of  lib 
erty — Nathaniel  Bacon— Mr.  Burke  on  love  of  liberty  in 
the  South — Landed  estates  in  Virginia— Tobacco  used  as 
money — Indentured  servants— Splendid  hospitality— Cove 
nanter  element  introduced — Covenanters  superior  to  Cav 
aliers — Patrick  Calhoun  on  the  Covenanters — Education 
among  the  Covenanters  in  the  Colonies,  in  Ireland— In 
North  Carolina,  in  South  Carolina  and  in  Georgia — Cove 
nanters  in  New  Hampshire — Roosevelt  on  early  inhabit 
ants  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky — Covenanters  on  the 
Holston — Covenanters  not  paupers— Why  education  de 
clined  with  Southern  Covenanters — Covenanter  influence 
in  forming  the  institutions  of  the  South— Little  known  of 
the  Covenanters— The  reason  of  this — Henry  Watterson 
on  the  Covenanters— They  made  the  Southern  States — 
Their  monuments— Great  names  among  them — Their  in 
fluence  in  making  the  West — Covenanter  ideas  and  char 
acteristics  in  Southern  society — Preach  the  same  faith 
their  fathers  did — Southern  women — High  moral  and  re 
ligious  standard  in  the  South. 

Notwithstanding  the  paucity  of  great  names  in 
the  history  of  Virginia  previous  to  the  appearance 
of  the  master  minds  of  the  Revolutionary  epoch, 
there  certainly  arose  then  above  the  horizon  splen 
did  lights  of  marvelous  brilliancy  :  Washington, 
Henry,  Jefferson,  Madison  and  others.  How  grand 


144  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

in  outline!  How  majestic  in  intellect!  These 
were  the  products  of  the  storm  of  the  Revolution. 
They  were  the  children  of  the  new  era  in  human 
progress.  But  for  it,  they  would  have  died  and 
been  forgotten,  as  their  ancestors  had  died  and 
had  passed  forever  from  the  memory  of  man. 
Great  events  make  great  men.  They  quicken  the 
human  intellect  and  stir  its  powers  to  unwonted 
intensity.  The  Revolution  aroused  the  fires  of 
genius  from  their  slumbers,  and  they  leaped  forth 
with  a  splendor  rarely  paralleled  in  history.  It 
gave  the  world  the  peerless  Washington  ;  it  gave 
it  Patrick  Henry  with  his  tongue  of  flame.  The 
darkness  which  had  overshadowed  old  Colonial 
Virginia  was  followed  by  a  display  of  genius  of 
surpassing  brightness. 

I  would  not  underestimate  the  ante-Revolution 
ary  people  of  Virginia.  They  were  a  brave,  a 
noble  and  an  honorable  race  of  men,  though 
haughty  and  imperious.  The  two  dominating,  all- 
controlling  passions  of  their  lives  were  love  of  the 
church  and  devotion  to  their  king.  They  strug 
gled  long  to  save  their  church  unshorn  of  its 
power.  In  none  of  the  Colonies  was  loyalty  so 
deeply  rooted  as  in  Virginia.  All  the  sufferings 
of  the  early  settlers  were  only  evidences  of  their 
love  for  their  king.  Intense  as  this  feeling  was 


THE  COVENANTER  A'ND  THE  CAVALIER.     145 

in  the  days  of  Charles  I,  it  lost  none  of  its  force 
in  subsequent  reigns.  It  cost  the  old  aristocracy 
of  Virginia  many  a  bitter  pang  to  give  up  their 
sovereign.  It  is  almost  impossible  for  this  genera 
tion  to  realize  the  depth  of  devotion  felt  for  the 
mother  country.  Its  history,  its  traditions,  its 
glory  were  a  part  of  their  own  inherited  posses 
sions.  Affectionate,  even  enthusiastic  love  of  the 
royal  house  was  a  sentiment  which  had  descended 
from  father  to  son.  It  was  interwoven  with  their 
very  beings.  To  sever  this  bond  of  attachment 
and  to  break  away  from  these  hallowed  recollec 
tions  was  indeed  a  severe  trial. 

The  Cavaliers  were  a  proud-spirited  race.  They 
were  acutely  sensitive  and  jealous  of  their  privi 
leges.  They  would  submit  to  no  wrong,  either  as 
private  individuals  or  as  citizens  of  the  Common 
wealth.  Enthusiastically  and  warmly  devoted  to 
their  rulers  and  to  the  mother  land  as  they  were, 
they  loved  liberty  and  their  chartered  rights  just 
as  much.  They  were  far  from  being  abject  slaves. 
Nathaniel  Bacon,  the  leader  of  the  first  rebellion 
in  the  Colony,  was  an  educated  gentleman,  a  man 
of  wealth  and  high  social  distinction,  a  member  of 
Governor  Berkeley's  council.  Yet  he  drew  his 
sword  against  kingly  authority  in  defense  of  the 
12 


146  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

rights  "  accorded  in  the  royal  charter."  *  The 
spirit  of  freemen  still  animated  the  minds  of  the 
Cavaliers.  In  the  Revolution,  in  the  supreme 
hour  of  peril,  after  years  of  remonstrance,  petition 
and  humble  supplication,  sad  as  was  the  alterna 
tive,  many  of  them,  perhaps  a  majority,  turned 
away  from  the  memories  and  the  splendid  records 
of  the  past  and  bore  arms  for  their  country. 
When  the  great  conflict  was  at  hand,  and  it  be 
came  evident  that  a  stand  must  be  taken,  they 
threw  away  their  cherished  and  most  sacred  senti 
ments  and  nobly  sustained  the  cause  of  indepen 
dence. 

Mr.  Burke  is  quoted  by  Philip  Alexander  Bruce, 
in  his  recent  history  of  Virginia  in  the  seven 
teenth  century,  as  attributing  the  ardent  love  of 
liberty  during  the  Revolutionary  era,  in  ths  South 
ern  Colonies,  to  the  institution  of  slavery.  The 
fact  is  undeniable  that  no  people  in  any  country, 
or  in  any  age  of  the  world,  have  possessed  the 
spirit  of  liberty  in  a  higher  degree  than  the  peo 
ple  of  the  Southern  States.  Most  of  this  was  due, 
and  especially  so  in  the  Revolutionary  epoch,  to 
the  spirit  of  the  Covenanters.  There  seems,  how- 

*  Address  of  Rev.  Alexander  White  before  Scotch-Irish  Con 
gress,  Vol.  IV,  122. 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     147 

ever,  to  be  much  truth  in  Mr.  Burke's  conclusion. 
He  said: 

"There  is  a  circumstance  attending  these 
Southern  Colonies  which  makes  the  spirit  of 
liberty  still  more  high  and  haughty  than  in  those 
to  the  northward.  It  is  that  in  Virginia  and  the 
Carolinas,  they  have  a  vast  multitude  of  slaves. 
Where  this  is  the  case,  in  any  part  of  the  world, 
those  who  are  free  are  by  far  the  most  proud  and 
jealous  of  their  freedom.  Freedom  is  to  them,  not 
only  an  enjoyment,  but  a  kind  of  rank  and  priv 
ilege.  !N"ot  seeing  there  that  freedom,  as  in  coun 
tries  where  it  is  a  common  blessing,  and  as  broad 
and  general  as  the  air,  may  be  united  with  much 
abject  toil,  with  great  misery,  with  all  the  exterior 
of  servitude,  liberty  looks  among  them  like  some 
thing  that  is  more  noble  and  liberal.  I  do  not 
mean  to  commend  the  superior  morality  of  this 
sentiment,  which  has  at  least  as  much  pride  as 
virtue  in  it;  but  I  can  not  alter  the  nature  of  man. 
The  fact  is  so ;  and  these  people  of  the  Southern 
Colonies  are  much  more  strongly,  and  with  a.higher 
and  more  stubborn  spirit  attached  to  liberty, 
than  those  to  the  northward.  Such  were  all  the 
ancient  commonwealths;  such  were  our  Gothic  an 
cestors;  such,  in  our  days,  were  the  Poles,  and  such 
will  be  all  masters  of  slaves  who  are  not  slaves 


148  COVENANTER,  CA.VALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

themselves.  In  such  a  people,  the  haughtiness  of 
domination  combines  with  the  spirit  of  freedom, 
fortifies  it,  and  renders  it  invincible." 

The  landed  estates  of  the  wealthy  in  Old  Vir 
ginia,  were  of  immense  size.  Recent  investiga 
tions  have  shown  that  their  average  size  was  about 
five  thousand  acres.  Some  estates  amounted  to 
twenty-five  thousand  acres.  The  chief  industry  in 
those  days,  indeed  almost  the  only  one,  was  the 
cultivation  of  tobacco.  This  formed  almost  the 
sole  article  of  export.  This  was  exchanged  in 
European  markets  for  such  articles  of  necessity  or 
luxury  as  the  planters  needed.  These  included 
nearly  every  thing.  There  was  no  paper  money 
and  but  little  coin  in  the  early  days.  The  wealthi 
est  men  seldom  had  more  than  thirty  shillings  in 
coin.  Tobacco  was  the  medium  of  exchange.  It 
passed  at  a  fixed  value  per  pound  and  was  a  legal 
tender  for  all  debts.  In  it,  at  a  price  fixed  by  law, 
tithes,  taxes  and  debts  were  paid. 

These  vast  landed  estates  required  large  numbers 
of  laborers.  Free  white  labor  could  not  be  had, 
and  probably  was  not  desired.  Large  numbers  of 
indented,  or  indentured  servants  were  used  for  this 
purpose,  as  well  as  African  slaves.  These  inden 
tured  servants  were  white  men,  who  were  sold  into 
slavery  for  a  term  of  years,  because  of  crimes,  or 


THE   COVENANTER   AND   THE   CAVALIER.  149 

political  offenses.  For  the  time  being  they  were 
as  absolute  slaves  as  the  African  negroes. 

On  these  great  estates  reigned  a  splendid  and 
generous  hospitality,  after  the  style  of  Old  En 
gland.  Exchanges  of  visits  were  constantly  taking 
place  between  tha  wealthy  planters.  On  every 
plantation  the  door  of  "the  great  house'''  stood 
wide  open  to  all  persons  of  "good  conditions"  who 
chose  to  enter.  Feasting  and  the  pleasures  of 
entertaining  formed  a  large  part  of  the  life  of  the 
old  Virginian.  It  was  in  this  school  that  the  sons 
of  the  Cavalier  Colony  earned  their  reputation  for 
the  most  profuse  and  elegant  hospitality  known  on 
this  continent,  which  distinction  was  still  sustained 
by  their  descendants,  as  long  as  slavery  lasted, 
with  scarcely  diminished  honor. 

But  it  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  with  the  in 
ception  of  the  revolutionary  movement,  the  new 
and  powerful  Covenanter  element,  shown  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  was  introduced  into  the  councils 
of  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia.  To  this  a  large 
part  of  the  glory  of  the  state  must  be  attributed. 
How  to  apportion  this  glory  between  the  two  peo 
ples  with  any  thing  approximating  exactness  and 
justice,  it  is  impossible  to  determine.  It  is  suffi 
cient  to  say  that  many  distinguished,  and  some 
great  names,  belong  to  each  class. 


150  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

Since  the  Revolution  the  old  Cavalier  stock  of 
Virginia  has  borne  a  most  honorable  and  con 
spicuous  part  in  the  history  of  this  country.  It 
were  needless  to  attempt  to  enumerate  their  many 
noble  qualities,  or  to  set  forth  their  achievements, 
in  statesmanship  and  in  arms,  since  they  are  known 
of  all  men.  Virginia  is  no  longer  a  Cavalier 
State,  but  a  happy  blending  of  the  blood  of  both 
the  Cavalier  and  the  Covenanter — of  the  best 
qualities  of  both  united  in  one. 

But  comparing  the  old  races  as  they  were  prior 
to  the  Revolution,  and  counting  also  their  faults 
and  defects,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that,  in  the 
essentials  that  constitute  a  mighty  people,  of  the 
two  the  Covenanters  were  decidedly  the  superior. 
This  will  be  more  manifest  as  I  point  out  briefly 
some  of  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the 
Covenanters. 

In  courage,  persistency,  fortitude,  firmness,  nat 
ural  capacity,  purity  of  life,  and  in  high  moral  and 
religious  principle,  no  people  ever  surpassed  them. 
Their  industry  and  thrift  were  proverbial.  In  love 
of  liberty,  and  in  quickness  to  discern  and  resist 
every  approach  of  oppression  and  wrong,  an  ex 
perience  of  centuries,  had  made  them  the  foremost 
people  in  the  world.  Their  long  and  bitter  trials 
in  struggling  for  freedom  of  conscience  had  given 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     151 

them  the  true  idea  of  religious  toleration,  as  it 
exists  to-day  in  every  State  in  the  Union,  and  as 
it  is  fixed  in  the  constitution  of  every  common 
wealth.  They  required  for  themselves  the  fullest 
liberty  in  religious  matters,  and  both  in  Ireland 
and  in  the  Colonies  generously  conceded  the  same 
to  all  other  sects.  They  did  not  demand  that  their 
church  should  be  made  the  church,  but  that  it 
should  be  equal  with  all  others.  They  did  not 
seek  to  impose  restrictions  on  other  religions,  nor 
to  gain  peculiar  privileges  for  their  own.  Though 
their  fathers,  at  an  early  day,  in  Scotland,  had  per 
secuted  men  for  opinion's  sake,*  a  century  and  a 
halt'  of  suffering,  of  trial,  of  development,  had 
lifted  them  up  to  an  elevation  of  larger  vision  and 
of  more  charitable  thought.  And  except  for  the 
voice,  the  influence  and  the  votes  of  the  Cove 
nanters  in  Virginia,  it  may  be  safely  affirmed  that 
Mr.  Jefferson  and  his  associates  could  not  have  re 
moved  the  deeply-rooted  and  strongly-entrenched 
Cavalier  restrictions  on  a  free  religion  in  that  State. 
On  these  points  the  remarks  of  Mr.  Patrick 
Calhoun,  in  his  address  before  the  Scotch-Irish 
Congress,  in  Atlanta,  in  1892,  are  so  pertinent 
that  I  venture  to  quote  a  couple  of  paragraphs  : 

*  Lecky  and  other  writers  say  that  at  an  early  day  they  were 
narrow  and  bitter. 


15*2  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND   PURITAN. 

u  In  what  striking  contrast  wafe  the  advent  of 
the  hardy  pioneers  who  had  left  home  and  fireside, 
for  conscience  sake,  to  seek  liberty  and  freedom  in 
the  wilderness  of  America.  They  wrote  their 
history  with  the  rifle  and  the  ax,  the  sword  and 
the  plow.  There  was  no  herald  of  their  coming, 
save  the  splash  of  the  pole  as  they  pushed  the 
rude  ferry-boat  across  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Savannah,  or  the  crack  of  the  whip  as  they  urged 
their  tired  beasts,  drawing  primitive  wagons  over 
rough  mountain  roads.  The  record  of  their  com 
ing  was  lost  as  the  ripples  of  the  river  sunk  back 
into  its  current,  or  the  echoes  of  the  mountain 
died  away  in  its  silence.  We  know  neither  the 
day,  nor  the  month,  nor  the  year  when  thousands 
came.  But  the  fact  that  they  had  come  was  at 
tested  by  the  falling  of  the  trees.  Cabins  rose  and 
fruitful  farms  appeared  where  forests  grew  and 
Indians  roamed.  And  not  far  off'  the  church,  the 
house  at  once  of  worship  and  education."  .  .  . 

"From  the  time  when  the  Scots  left  the  north 
of  Ireland  to  the  period  when  the  Ulster  planta 
tion  was  settled,  in  1609,  Scotland  was  one  con 
stant  theater  of  war.  The  sterility  of  the  coun 
try,  the  clannish  life  its  people  led,  the  constant 
dangers  to  which  they  were  exposed,  the  frugal 
manner  in  which  their  surroundings  compelled 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     153 

them  to  live — all  contributed  to  produce  a  brave 
and  hardy  race.  Alone  frequently  in  the  moun 
tains,  forced  to  rely  purely  upon  their  own  pow 
ers,  there  was  developed  in  a  marked  degree  not 
only  physical  courage,  but  that  high  moral  cour 
age  and  reliance  which  have  so  distinguished  the 
race,  and  enabled  it  under  all  circumstances  to 
stand  so  unswervingly  for  what  it  believed  to  be 
right,  and  made  it  ready  to  sacrifice  home,  family, 
hope  of  emolument,  lite  itself,  for  the  dictates  of 
conscience.  Love  of  individual  liberty,  devotion 
to  home  and  family  ties,  the  habit  of  reflection, 
promptness  and  decision  in  action,  deep  religious 
convictions,  belief  in  self-government,  and  a  readi 
ness  to  resist  the  central  power  in  the  interest  of 
the  clan,  were  characteristics  naturally  growing 
out  of  the  environment  of  the  Scots.  They  were 
frequently  overrun  by  stronger  and  more  numer 
ous  forces,  but  they  were  never  conquered.  The 
sturdiness,  endurance  and  persistency  of  the  race 
enabled  them  to  surmount  every  form  of  conquest 
and  oppression.  The  moment  the  pressure  of  su 
perior  power  was  removed,  the  rebound  occurred, 
and  Scotland  was  again  in  arms  fighting  for  her 
rights.  The  indomitable  courage  of  the  Scot  was 
invincible.  Their  natural  characteristics  could  not 
13 


154  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

be  destroyed,  even  by  merger  with  other  races. 
The  Dane,  the  Saxon  and  the  Norman  settled  in 
Scotland,  and  their  blood  is  liberally  intermingled 
in  the  veins  of  the  Scotch,  but  the  virility  of  the 
Scotch  blood  has  preserved  its  distinctive  national 
traits.  Not  even  centuries  of  union  with  England 
could  destroy  these.  The  Scots  were  stronger  for 
their  life  in  Scotland,  better  for  the  blood  of  the 
Pict,  the  Dane,  the  Saxon  and  the  Norman. 
When  they  returned  to  the  north  of  Ireland,  they 
found  nothing  there  to  weaken  or  enervate,  but 
much  to  temper  and  to  strengthen.  Transplanted 
to  the  wilderness  of  America,  their  environment 
was  as  well  calculated  to  develope  their  courage, 
independence  and  sturdiness  of  character  as  the 
lives  their  ancestors  had  led  in  Scotland.  They 
were  the  pioneers  of  civilization  and  stood  for 
more  than  half  a  century  as  the  guards  and  pro 
tection  of  the  Colonists  nearer  the  coast.  To  the 
hardship  of  the  frontier  and  the  wilderness  was 
added  the  daily  fear  of  Indian  attacks.  And  then 
the  war  school  of  the  Revolution  !  Is  it  a  wonder 
that  with  the  numbers  the  Scotch  and  Irish  had 
contributed  to  the  population  of  the  Colonies — is 
it  a  wonder  that  with  the  character  stamped  by 
the  action  of  centuries  upon  their  lives,  they 
should  have  played  an  important  part  in  that  great 


THE    COVENANTER   AND    THE    CAVALIER.  155 

historical  drama?  Is  it  a  wonder  that*Froude 
gives  to  them  the  credit  of  having  won  independ 
ence  for  America,  arid  goes  so  far  as  to  suggest 
that  even  Bunker  Hill  was  borrowed  from  Ireland  ? 
It  was  these  people  and  their  descendants  who, 
pouring  into  Middle  and  Upper  Georgia,  gave  di 
rection  to  its  civilization."  *  .  .  . 

In  education,  the  Covenanters  were  superior  to 
any  other  people  or  sect  which  came  to  the  Colo 
nies.  If  they  were  equaled  by  any,  it  was  only  by 
the  higher  class  of  the  first  Puritan  settlers.  As 
a  whole  they  were  far  better  educated  than  the 
Puritans.  "After  the  death  of  the  first  settlers," 
Campbell  says,  "  there  was  a  marked  decline 
(among  the  Puritans),  not  only  in  education,  but 
in  all  manifestations  of  a  liberal  spirit  in  every 
direction. "f  Prof.  Jameson  said:  "Puritanism 
(had)  gone  to  seed,  grown  narrow7  and  harsh  and 
petty."  t 

At  the  time  the  Covenanters  left  Scotland  for 
Ireland,  the  state  of  education  was  higher  and 
more  universal  in  that  country  than  in  England. 
The  Covenanters  did  not  deteriorate  in  Ireland  in 


*  Proceedings  Scotch-Irish  Congress,  Vol.  VI,  136. 
t  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  494. 

t  The    History  of    Historical   Writing    in    America,   by  J. 
Franklin  Jameson,  Ph.D.,  21,  quoted  by  Campbell. 


156  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND   PURITAN. 

this  respect,  but  remained  a  more  thoroughly  edu 
cated  people  than  the  English  who  were  planted 
there  at  the  same  time.  When  they  reached  the 
Colonies,  as  I  have  already  shown,  their  first  care 
and  thought,  next  after  their  religion,  were  to 
provide  for  the  education  of  the  rising  generation. 

Douglas  Campbell  says  of  the  Covenanters : 
"Nor  were  they  children  of  ignorance.  Although 
their  schools  had  been  closed  by  law,  they  had 
found  means  of  private  instruction  in  the  com 
mon  branches,  while  those  desiring  a  higher  edu 
cation — and  they  were  very  numerous — had  made 
their  way  to  the  Presbyterian  Universities  of 
Edinburgh  and  Glasgow.  When  they  came  to 
America  these  Scotch-Irishmen  were  not  only 
among  the  most  industrious  and  virtuous,  but 
they  were,  as  a  whole,  like  the  early  settlers  of 
New  England,  probabty  the  best  educated  of  the 
English  speaking  race."* 

Again,  the  same  author  says  :  "In  the  fields  of 
education  the  debt  of  America  to  these  immi 
grants  "  (Covenanters)  "  can  hardly  be  exaggerated. 
Not  only  did  they  give  life  and  character  .to 
Princeton  College,  and  found  the  institution  now 
known  as  the  College  of  Washington  and  Lee, 

*  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  479,  480. 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     157 

in  Virginia,  but  they  gave  her  free  school  system 
to  New  Jersey  and  Kentucky,  and  for  nearly  a 
century  before  the  Revolution  they  conducted 
most  of  the  classical  schools  south  of  the  province 
of  New  York.  It  was  in  these  schools  that  the 
fathers  of  the  Revolution  in  the  South,  almost 
without  exception,  received  their  education.* 

Along  this  same  line,  a  recent  writer  says  of  the 
Covenanters  of  North  Carolina  : 

"From  the  arrival  of  the  immigrants"  (the 
Scotch-Irish,  in  1706)  "  dates  the  establishment 
of  schools  throughout  the  State.  It  is  to  the 
Presbyterian  Church  that  North  Carolina  owes 
the  establishment  of  her  first  classical  schools,  and 
during  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  history  of  education  in  this  State  is  insepara 
bly  connected  with  that  of  this  denomination." 
.  .  .  "Almost  invariably,"  says  Foote  (History  of 
North  Carolina)  "as  soon  as  a  neighborhood  was 
settled  preparations  were  made  for  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel  by  a  regular  stated  pastor,  'and 
wherever  a  pastor  was  located,  in  that  congrega 
tion,  there  was  a  classical  school,  as  in  Sugar 
Creek,  Poplar  Tent,  Centre,  Bethany,  Buffalo, 
Thyatira,  Grove,  Wilmington,  and  the  churches 
*  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  486. 


158  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

occupied  by  Patillo  in  Orange  and  Granville  Coun 
ties.* 

Again,  the  same  author  says  :  "  To  the  Scotch- 
Irish  Presbyterians  occupying  Central  and  Pied 
mont  Carolina  is  due  the  lasting  honor  of  having 
established  the  first  academies  in  the  province,  and 
it  is  said  that  it  was  through  their  influence  that 
the  clause  providing  for  a  university "  (and  for 
common  schools)  "  was  inserted  in  the  initial 
constitution  of  the  State."  f 

Again,  he  says :  u  The  pioneer  promoters  of 
advanced  educational  work  in  North  Carolina 
were  Presbyterians."  J 

The  author  enumerates  by  name  fifteen  classical 
and  scientific  schools,  academies  and  colleges 
started  by  Covenanter  ministers  in  that  State  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  besides,  doubtless,  many 
more  referred  to  in  general  terms.  In  fact,  nearly 
the  entire  educational  system  in  that  State  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  Covenanters. 

In  South  Carolina  they  were  also  active  in  the 
same  cause.  The  celebrated  school  of  Rev.  Moses 
Waddell,  at  Willington,  where  so  many  great  and 
distinguished  men  were  educated,  was  the  most 


*  History  of  Education  in   Noith  Carolina,  by  Charles  Lee 
Smith.     Bureau  of  Education,  Washington,  23. 

t  Id.  52.  j  Id.  109. 


THE    COVENANTER    AND    THE    CAVALIER.  159 

noted  of  all  the  Carolina  schools.  Bat  there  were 
others  also.  In  Georgia  they  did  a  great  work  in 
the  same  cause,  but  not  an  exclusive  one.  In 
Virginia  they  spread  education  wherever  they 
went.  In  Kentucky  also  at  an  early  day  they 
established  schools  and  colleges.  In  Tennessee 
the  first  four  colleges  in  the  State  were  founded  in 
the  eighteenth  century  by  Covenanters,  or  pre 
sided  over  by  Covenanters. 

In  the  historical  society  of  New  Hampshire  there 
is  an  ancient  parchment,  dated  26th  of  March, 
"AnnoDom.,"  1718,  to  which  three  hundred  and 
nineteen  names  are  appended.  It  is  the  petition  of 
certain  Covenanter,  or  Scotch-Irish,  heads  of  fam 
ilies,  "  from  Ulster,  of  the  North  of  Ireland,"  ad 
dressed  to  Governor  Shute,  of  Massachusetts,  in 
forming  him  of  their  desire  "to  transport  ourselves" 
(themselves)  "  to  his  very  excellent  and  renowned 
plantation,"  upon  obtaining  suitable  encourage 
ment.  Of  the  three  hundred  and  nineteen  signers 
of  this  paper,  all  but  thirteen,  or  ninety-six  per 
cent,  signed  their  own  names  in  "  fair  and  vigorous 
characters."  * 

The  learned  professor  to  whom  I  have  referred, 
says  in  reference  to  this  document :  "  It  may  well 

*  Prof.  A.  L.  Perry's  address  before  the  Scotch-Irish  Con 
gress  of  1890,  Vol.  II,  of  Proceedings,  107. 


160  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

be  questioned  whether  in  any  other  part  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  at  that  time,  one  hundred  and 
seventy-two  years  ago,  in  England  or  Wales,  or 
Scotland,  or  Ireland,  so  large  a  proportion  of  pro 
miscuous  householders  in  the  common  walks  of 
life,  could  have  written  their  own  names."* 

On  August  4,  1718,  five  ships  came  to  anchor  in 
Boston,  having  on  board  one  hundred  and  twenty 
families  of  these  adventurous  Covenanters,  num 
bering  seven  hundred  and  fifty  persons,  who  had 
some  months  before  sent  that  letter  or  parchment 
to  Governor  Shute,  asking  for  permission  to  trans 
port  themselves  to  his  "  renowned  plantation."  A 
part  of  these  daring  people,  probably  fifty  large 
families,  settled  in  Worcester,  Massachusetts.! 

Some  of  this  noble  band  of  heroes,  namely,  six 
teen  families,  settled  at  Londonderry,  New  Hamp 
shire,  and  others  in  the  Kennebec  country,  in 
Maine.  The  descendants  of  these  pioneers  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years  spread  all  over  New  England, 
and  especially  over  New  Hampshire  and  Maine. 
Indeed,  these  two  states  became*  largely  Cove 
nanter  in  population,  especially  the  former. 

As  previously  pointed  out,  the  first  public  meet- 

*  Prof.  A.  L.  Perry's  address  before  the  Scotch-Irish  Con 
gress  of  1890,  Vol.  II,  of  Proceedings,  107. 
t  Id.,  110,  111. 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     161 

ing  held  in  the  Colonies,  which  set  forth  the 
precise  essential  principles  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  was  held  in  the  County  of  Wor 
cester,  Massachusetts,  in  1773,  where  the  fifty 
Covenanter  families  had  settled  more  than  a  half- 
century  before.*  From  this  little  hive  came  Mat 
thew  Thornton,  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence,  and  the  renowned  botanist,  Professor 
Asa  Gray.f 

It  is  singular  how  events,  remote  from  each 
other,  in  point  of  space  and  time,  sometimes  seem 
to  duplicate  each  other.  Thus,  in  1776,  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Watauga  Association,  in  Eastern  Ten 
nessee,  most  of  whom  were  of  the  Covenanter 
stock,  sent  a  memorial  to  the  legislature  of  North 
Carolina,  signed  by  one  hundred  and  four  persons, 
all  of  whom  except  two  subscribed  it  with  their 
own  names.  J 

Again,  Mr.  Roosevelt,  in  speaking  of  the  early 
inhabitants  of  the  large  region  in  the  South,  first 
occupied  mainly,  and  indeed,  almost  entirely,  by 
men  of  Covenanter  blood,  says  : 

"In  examining  numerous  original  drafts  of  peti 
tions  and  the  like,  signed  by  hundreds  of  the  original 


*  Bryant's  Popular  History  of  the  U.  S.,  Vol.  Ill,  472. 
t  Proceedings  of  Scotch-Irish  Congress,  Vol.  II,  123. 
+  Ramsey's  Annals  of  Tennessee,  137,  138. 


162  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

settlers  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  I  have  been 
struck  by  the  small  proportion — not  much  over 
three  or  four  per  cent,  at  the  outside — of  men  who 
made  their  mark,  instead  of  signing."* 

Fortunately  we  are  not  left  in  doubt  either  as  to 
who  these  early  settlers  were,  nor  as  to  their  moral 
standing  and  intellectual  attainments.  Mr.  Roose 
velt  has  resurrected  a  manuscript  left  by  the  Hon 
orable  David  Campbell,  a  son  of  one  of  the  Holston 
pioneer  Covenanters,  giving  an  account  of  the 
early  settlers  on  the  Holston  in  South-west  Vir 
ginia.  The  settlers  on  the  lower  Holston,  in  Ten 
nessee,  were  but  an  overflow  of  the  people  from 
the  upper  Holston.  Campbell  says  : 

"  The  first  settlers  on  the  Holston  river  were  a 
remarkable  race  of  men,  for  their  intelligence,  en 
terprise  and  hardy  adventure,  .  .  .  wrere 
mostly  descendants  of  Irish  stock,  and  generally 
where  they  had  any  religious  opinions  were  Pres 
byterians.  A  very  large  proportion  were  re 
ligious  and  many  of  them  were  members  of  the 

chnrch."t 

Nor  did  the  Covenanters  who  sought  homes  in 
the  Colonies  belong  to  the  lower  or  pauper  class. 
Perhaps  no  people  who  ever  emigrated  to  the 


"  Winning  of  the  West,"  Vol.  I,  180. 
t  Id.  167. 


THE    COVENANTER   AND    THE    CAVALIER.  163 

Colonies,  or  to  the  States,  as  a^  whole,  equaled 
them,  and  certainly  none  ever  surpassed  them,  in 
material  condition  and  circumstances.  The  colo 
nists  from  Scotland  who  settled  Ulster,  under  the 
charter  of  James  I,  of  May  16,  1605,  were  picked 
men.  James  had  agents  for  this  very  purpose. 
None  but  persons  above  exception  were  received. 
In  one  of  the  letters  of  Arthur  Chichester,  deputy 
of  James  for  Ireland,  he  says:  "The  Scottish 
men  came  in  better  port  (i.  e.,  manifest  character), 
they  are  better  accompanied  and  attended,  than 
even  the  English  settlers."  *  For  many  years, 
perhaps  nearly  a  hundred,  before  the  great  emi 
gration  to  America  commenced,  they  lived  in  com 
parative  peace  in  Ireland,  and  were  very  prosper 
ous.  Many  of  those  who  settled  in  the  Colonies 
were  wealthy.  Campbell  says:  "In  the  first 
place,  it  should  be  noticed  that  they  were  not  so 
cially  poor  peasants,  such  as  Ireland  has  contrib 
uted  to  America  in  later  days.  Among  them  were 
wealthy  yeomen,  and  in  their  ranks  were  the  most 
intelligent  of  Irish  manufacturers."  f 

When  the  Covenanters  landed   in   the  Colonies 
they  were  comparatively  independent  in  the  mat- 

*  Proceedings  of  Scotch-Irish  Congress,  Address  of  Rev.  Dr. 
Mclntosh,  Vol.  II,  93,  94;  Fronde,  393. 
t  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  479,  480. 


164  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND    PUEITAN. 

ter  of  property.  Many  facts  might  be  given  to 
sustain  this  statement.*  Within  my  own  observa 
tion,  I  know  that  the  early  settlers  of  Tennessee, 
who  were  largely  of  this  stock,  got  hold  of  and 
title  to  nearly  all  the  best  lands  of  the  country. 
After  the  early  settlers  had  passed  away,  the  rich 
est  families  and  the  richest  citizens  were  of  this 
race.  And  to-day,  nearly  all  the  old  families  who 
have  been  distinguished  either  for  talents  or 
wealth  are  descended  from  the  old  Covenanter 
stock.  And  what  is  true  of  Tennessee  is  believed 
to  be  true  of  nearly  all  the  Southern  States. 

Long  after  the  Revolution  the  Covenanters  from 
Ireland  still  continued  to  come  into  Eastern  Ten 
nessee.  They  were  all  Protestants  (generally 
Presbyterians),  well  educated,  and  many  of  them 
comfortable  in  point  of  property.  I  never  knew 
one  who  was  not  reasonably  well  educated.  In 
the  course  of  time  they  almost  universally  became 
possessed  of  considerable  property — enough  to 
make  them  independent. 

It  may   be   asked,  if  the  early  Covenanter  set- 


*  Hay  wood  says  that  in  1768,  1769,  1770,  all  mercantile  trade 
in  North  Carolina  was  in  the  hands  of  Scotch  merchants,  who 
lived  in  great  style.  The  members  of  the  Council  were 
chiefly  Scotch,  and  the  members  of  the  Assembly  also.  New 
edition,  50,  51. 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     165 

tiers  were  generally  so  well  educated,  why  so 
many  of  their  descendants  in  the  Southern  States 
are  to-day  illiterate.  Several  answers  can  be  given 
to  this  question. 

1.  Population  in  the  Southern  Colonies,  before  the 
Revolution,  and  in  the  States  for  a  long  time  aft 
erward,  was  so  greatly  scattered  and  diffused  over 
that  great  territory,  that  a  general  system  of  com 
mon  schools  was  well  nigh  impracticable.     There 
was  and  there  could  be  no  concentration  of  effort 
and  of  means  for  this  purpose.     Unfortunately,  as 
I    suggest   elsewhere,   the   township   principle    of 
local    self-government,    one   of  the    main    sources 
of  the  growth   and  glory  of  New  England,   was 
never  introduced  into  the   South.     The  result  was 
that  in  the  course  of  time,  common  education  in 
remote  districts  was  from  necessity  neglected,  and 
the  grandchildren  of  these  educated  Covenanters 
often  grew  up  in  comparative  ignorance. 

2.  The  Southern  States,  with  inconsiderable  ex 
ceptions  in  a  few  of  them — those  admitted  into 
the  Union  since  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Con 
stitution — have  derived  no  benefit  from  the  pro\7i- 
sion  made  by  Congress  for  the  support  of  common 
schools,  which    set  aside  for   this    purpose    every 
sixteenth    section  of  the    public    lands,  and    by  a 
later  act  gave  an  additional  section.     The  reason 


166  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

is  obvious:  When  that  law  went  into  effect,  there 
were  no  public  lands  in  the  older  Southern  States, 
and  therefore  the  law  had  no  force  in  them.  These 
States  had  patriotically,  but  most  unwisely  and  in 
considerately,  for  themselves,  surrendered  to  the 
Nation,  for  the  common  good,  all  the  territory  be 
longing  to  them  respectively,  without  reserving 
any  part  of  it  for  the  education  of  their  own  chil 
dren.  Virginia  gave  up  a  princely  domain  in  the 
North-west,  making  no  provision  for  the  education 
of  her  own  people.  The  result  has  been,  the  chil 
dren  of  that  State,  from  generation  to  generation, 
have  grown  up  in  ignorance,  while  in  the  North 
western  States  a  splendid  system  of  education  has 
been  built  up,  founded  on  the  land  grant  of  Con 
gress,  originally  the  bounty  of  Virginia. 

3.  Slavery,  if  not  positively  unfriendly,  never 
gave  the  cause  of  general  education  a  cordial  sup 
port.  Perhaps  this  was  because  it  was  thought 
that  a  large  educated,  reading,  thinking  popula 
tion  of  non-slaveholders  was  neither  safe  nor  de 
sirable  in  the  midst  of  a  slave  population.  Per 
haps,  also,  the  large  slaveholders  who  had  to  pay 
for  the  education  of  their  own  children  any  way, 
generally  having  to  send  them  away  from  home 
for  that  purpose,  were  unwilling  to  be  taxed  to 


THE    COVENANTER   AND    THE    CAVALIER.  167 

pay  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  the  others 
who  had  nothing. 

While  the  influence  of  the  Cavalier  has  always 
been,  and  justly,  too,  very  considerable  in  the 
South,  owing  to  the  prestige  of  a  great  name  and 
splendid  virtues,  it  is  indisputable  and  undeniably 
evident  that  a  much  larger  race,  with  equal  natu 
ral  capacity,  with  higher  culture  as  a  rule,  and 
with  greater  enterprise  and  energy,  scattered 
through  all  the  Southern  States,  and  with  marked 
influence  in  most  of  them,  could  not  have  been 
overshadowed  by  the  smaller  one,  confined  mainly 
to  one  State.  The  mere  statement  of  the  proposi 
tion,  without  elaboration,  is  sufficient  to  demon 
strate  its  correctness.  The  larger  and  the  greater 
race  has  not  been  lost  in  the  smaller  one.  Neither 
Cavalier  ideas,  nor  thoughts,  as  has  been  generally 
assumed,  have  given  form  and  shape  and  color  to 
the  institutions,  the  policies  and  the  public  opinion 
of  the  South.  It  has  been  the  ideas  and  thoughts 
and  the  genius  of  that  greater  and  more  numerous 
people,  the  Covenanters,  that  have  accomplished 
this.  So  quiet  and  earnest  have  they  been  in  ef 
fecting  this  noble  work  and  mission,  that  the  world 
had  almost  forgotten  until  recently  that  there  was 
such  a  people.  Even  their  descendants,  in  very 
many  cases  educated  persons,  too,  seem  to  have 


168  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

been  ignorant  of  their  own  origin.  The  Covenant 
ers  have  a  history,  hut  no  historian.  To  obtain 
any  definite  knowledge  of  this  remarkable  people, 
it  has  been  necessary  to  put  together  fragments 
and  scraps  of  history  gathered  from  a  multitude  of 
sources.* 

The  historians  of  the  country  have  been  almost 
silent  concerning  them.  Bancroft  in  his  first  edi 
tions  gave  only  partial  information  about  them. 
Hay-wood  and  Ramsey,  the  early  historians  of 
Tennessee — though  the  latter  was  honorably  de 
scended  from  a  distinguished  Covenanter  ances 
try,  and  was  proud  of  the  fact,  and  though  nearly 
all  of  our  population  were  of  this  blood,  and  the 


*  About  1878,  I  undertook  the  preparation  of  a  lecture  on 
the  Scotch-Irish  in  East  Tennessee,  and,  to  my  surprise,  I  could 
find  in  American  histories  only  slight  references  to  this  people. 
There  was  no  full,  connected  account  of  them  to  be  found  any 
where.  While  I  was  thus  engaged,  the  little  volume  by  the 
Rev.  J.  T.  Craighead,  D.D.,  entitled  "  Scotch  and  Irish  Seeds  in 
American  Soil,"  made  its  appearance.  Ten  years  later,  the 
"  Scotch-Irish  Society  of  America  "  was  organized  in  Tennes 
see,  and  it  has  published  eight  volumes  of  addresses  from 
prominent  men  all  over  the  country,  containing  valuable  ma 
terial  for  the  future  historian.  Recently,  too,  Douglas  [Camp 
bell,  in  his  valuable  book,  "  The  Puritan  in  Holland,  England, 
and  America,"  has  devoted  one  chapter  to  the  Scotch-Irish  in 
America.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  he  will  take  up  this  subject 
in  a  separate  work. 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     169 

monuments  of  their  deeds  and  of  their  courage 
could  be  seen  every-where — are  as  silent  about 
them  as  if  no  such  people  ever  existed. 

It  is  surprising,  indeed  amazing,  how  little  credit 
the  Covenanters  have  received  for  their  great 
work  in  this  country;  how  historians  and  public 
speakers  alike  have  overlooked  and  ignored  them, 
and  how,  until  recently,  they  had  passed  out  of 
the  public  mind,  and  were  known  only  by  tradi 
tion  as  a  people  that  once  existed,  but  which  had 
been  lost  in  the  course  of  time.  By  many  persons 
they  have  been  confounded  with  the  native  Irish 
men — a  majority  of  whom  were  uneducated  and 
of  a  totally  different  religious  faith — who  have 
poured  in  such  numbers  upon  our  shores  during 
the  last  sixty  or  seventy  years. 

One  reason,  perhaps  the  main  reason,  why  so 
little  is  known  of  the  Covenanters,  why  they  have 
received  so  little  credit  for  their  work,  is  that 
they  wrere  scattered  over  the  whole  country  from 
Maine  to  Georgia.  They  settled  no  colony  ex 
clusively,  and  founded  no  State,  as  the  Puritans 
and  the  Cavaliers  did.  They  were  in  the  absolute, 
the  undisputed  control  of  none.  In  each  of  the 
Colonies,  if  they  were  not  in  a  minority,  they 
could  only  work  in  co-operation  with  or  in  subor- 
14 


170  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

dination  to  the  older  people  whom  they  found  on 
their  arrival.  Thus  environed,  there  was  no  op 
portunity  for  the  manifestation  of  that  individual 
ity,  for  those  high  evidences  of  greatness  which 
have  distinguished  this  people  in  every  part  of  the 
world.  The  nearest  exception,  perhaps,  to  the 
truth  of  the  above  statement  is  found  in  the  later 
history  of  the  Colonies  of  New  Jersey  and  Penn 
sylvania,  and  in  the  States  of  Tennessee  and  Ken 
tucky.  And  yet,  neither  of  these  was  distinctively 
of  Covenanter,  as  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut 
were  of  Puritan,  and  as  Virginia  was  of  Cavalier 
origin. 

At  the  eighty-ninth  annual  dinner  of  the  Pil 
grim  Fathers  in  New  York,  December  22,  1894, 
where  as  usual  all  the  talk  and  all  the  eloquence 
were  expended  in  praise  of  the  Puritans  and  the 
Cavaliers,  the  gifted  Henry  Watterson  (when  his 
time  to  speak  came),  after  speaking  at  some  length 
of  these  races,  said : 

"Each  was  good  enough  and  bad  enough,  in  its 
way,  while  they  lasted  ;  each  in  its  turn  filled  the 
English-speaking  world  with  mourning;  and  each, 
if  either  could  have  resisted  the  infection  of  the 
soil  and  climate  they  found  here,  would  be  to-day 
striving  at  the  sword's  point  to  square  life  by  the 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     171 

iron  rule  of  theocracy,  or  to  round  it  by  the  dizzy 
whirl  of  a  petticoat."     .     .     . 

"  If  you  wish  to  get  at  the  bottom  facts,  I  do  n't 
mind  telling  you — in  confidence — that  it  was  we 
Scotch-Irish  who  vanquished  both  of  you — some 
of  us  in  peace,  others  of  us  in  war — supplying  the 
missing  link  of  adaptability,  the  needed  ingredient 
of  common  sense,  the  conservative  principle  of 
creed  and  action,  to  which  this  generation  of 
Americans  owes  its  intellectual  and  moral  eman 
cipation  from  frivolity  and  pharisaism,  its  rescue 
from  the  Scarlet  Woman  and  the  mailed  hand,  and 
its  crystallization  into  a  national  character  and 
polity,  ruling  by  force  of  brains  and  not  by  force 
of  ,arms." 

While  Puritan  Massachusetts  was  still  over 
shadowed  by  the  gloom  of  a  narrow  and  cruel 
fanaticism,  and  Cavalier  Virginia  was  still  held  in 
the  iron  grasp  of  an  effete  caste  and  lingering 
bigotry,  the  Covenanters  were  every- where  from 
their  pulpits  and  in  their  schools,  quietly  but  ef 
fectively  sowing  the  seed  of  toleration  and  of 
political  and  religious  emancipation,  and  blazing 
out  the  pathway  of  the  Eevolution.  They  sounded 
the  first  notes  of  the  war,  and  helped  to  fight  its 
battles.  When  peace  again  came,  they  fixed  the 
unfading  impress  of  their  advanced  ideas  and 


172  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

strong  characters  on  the  institutions  and  on  the 
life  and  the  thought  of  the  larger  part  of  the 
country. 

It  was  the  people  of  Covenanter  blood  who 
made  the  Southern  States.  Whatever  these  States 
and  the  people  of  these  States  may  be,  whatever 
of  good  or  evil  there  may  be,  in  religion,  in  edu 
cation,  in  science,  in  art,  in  invention,  in  literature, 
in  thought,  in  oratory,  in  statesmanship,  or  political 
economy,  whatever  heroism  and  glory  in  war  there 
may  be,  these  are  all  mainly  due  to  the  Cove 
nanters.  I  will  not  enter  into  a  criticism  of  the 
political  methods  and  political  theories  of  these 
peoples,  but  it  must  be  strikingly  manifest  to  all 
candid  minds  that  they  have  gloriously  maintained 
their  theories  and  opinions,  both  in  the  forum  of 
debate  and  on  the  field  of  blood,  with  a  skill, 
a  daring,  an  ability  and  prowess  never  excelled. 
I  would  not  withhold  from  the  Cavalier  just 
praise  for  the  share  he  has  had  in  molding  the 
political  and  social  institutions  of  the  South,  but 
must  deny  that  he  is  entitled  to  the  chief  credit, 
or  even  to  an  equal  credit  with  the  Covenanter  in 
\\hat  has  been  done. 

Though  history  has  not  recorded  the  work  of 
this  people,  the  evidences  of  their  deeds  still  re 
main.  They  have  builded  monuments,  but  put  no 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     173 

inscription  thereon  to  tell  who  the  builders  were. 
They  left  monuments  in  the  assertion  and  estab 
lishment  of  religious  liberty  ;  in  first  declaring 
for  the  Independence  of  the  Colonies;  for  their 
share  in  the  battles  and  the  victories  of  the  Revo 
lution;  in  the  large  share  they  had  in  the  framing 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  in 
giving  form  to  the  national  government;  in  or 
ganizing  states  and  stamping  the  policies  thereof 
with  their  own  peculiar  impress;  in  founding  and 
building  institutions  of  learning,  and  in  maintain 
ing  every-where  their  lofty  and  pure  principles  of 
religion,  morality,  justice  and  honor,  which  con 
stitute  the  true  glory  of  any  people. 

If  great  names  are  the  evidences  of  a  great 
race,  surely  no  people  of  modern  times  has  sur 
passed  the  Covenanters,  though  too  modest  to 
write  their  own  history.  I  name  only  a  few : 
Alexander  Hamilton,  Patrick  Henry,  Thomas 
Jefferson,  James  Witherspoon,  the  Livingstons, 
the  Clintons,  James  Monroe,  Andrew  Jackson, 
James  K.  Polk,  John  Bell,  Hugh  Lawson  White, 
Sam  Houston,  the  Rutledges,  the  Piekneys, 
John  C.  Calhoun,  W.  C.  Preston,  the  Breckin- 
ridges,  Zachary  Taylor,  James  Buchanan,  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  Andrew  Johnson,  U.  S.  Grant, 
Chester  A.  Arthur,  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  Gen- 


174  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

erals  Knox,  Montgomery,  Stark,  Sullivan,  Morgan, 
Howard,  Sumter,  Moultrie,  Reed,  Stuart,  Martin, 
Wayne,  Armstrong,  Mercer,  Marion,  Rutherford, 
George  Graham,  Joseph  Graham,  Irwine,  David 
son,  Pickens,  St.  Glair,  Lewis,  Porter,  Nash  and 
George  Rogers  Clarke.  Take  six  of  these  names, 
Hamilton,  Jefferson,  Henry,  Calhoun,  Jackson  and 
Grant,  and  it  would  be  impossible  to  find  in  our 
own  annals,  or  in  the  annals  of  any  other  nation, 
in  any  one  century  of  time,  six  grander  names. 

Wendell  Phillips  said:  "  Races  are  tried  in  two 
ways,  first,  by  the  great  men  they  produce; 
secondly,  by  the  average  merit  of  the  mass  of  the 
race." 

Surely  the  race  must  be  a  remarkable  one  that 
could  produce  so  many  eminent  men. 

I  have  thus  far  been  speaking  chiefly  of  the 
Covenanters  in  the  South.  I  have  shown  that  it 
has  been  their  ideas  and  their  acts  principally,  and 
not  those  of  the  Cavaliers,  which  have  dominated 
and  controlled  that  region,  and  molded  and  given 
form  to  its  institutions.  Their  influence,  however, 
has  not  been  limited  to  the  South.  Their  sons 
and  daughters  have  gone  out  to  the  North-west 
and  have  spread  all  over  that  vast  region,  even  to 
the  far-off  shores  of  the  Pacific.  Whenever  a  new 
State  or  territory  was  opened  to  settlement  among 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     175 

the  first  to  enter  it  have  been  the  descendants  of 
the  Covenanters,  vieing  with  the  Puritans  in  the 
eager  race  of  life  and  in  planting  civilization  in  the 
wilderness. 

The  Southern  Covenanters  formed  only  a  part, 
though  the  larger  part,  of  that  people  which  came 
to  the  Colonies.  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  New 
Jersey,  New  York  and  ]S"ew  England,  as  we  have 
seen,  all  had  a  share  of  the  influx  of  the  Cove 
nanters  in  the  eighteenth  century.  They  spread 
westward  with  the  great  stream  of  settlers  who 
filled  that  vast  region.  They,  too,  have  had  a  part 
in  the  glory  of  the  marvelous  development  and 
growth  of  the  West.  The  Covenanter  has  not 
been  lost  there  in  the  Puritan,  nor  absorbed  by 
him.  They  have  retained  every-where  their 
marked  individuality.  In  every  State  and  ter 
ritory,  they  can.be  found  to-day,  the  equals  of  the 
Puritan  in  all  the  essentials  of  manhood,  and  fully 
as  advanced  in  culture  and  civilization,  and  in  all 
the  arts  of  peace  and  refinement. 

In  the  entire  framework  of  Southern  society 
and  Southern  ideas,  the  characteristics  of  the 
Covenanters  appear.  Time  and  association  and 
affiliation  with  other  races,  especially  with  Cava 
liers  and  Huguenots,  have  modified  to  some  extent 
his  original  traits.  But  there  runs  through  South- 


176  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

ern  life  a  manifest  undertone  of  Covenanter 
thought.  The  steadfastness  of  purpose,  partic 
ularly  in  reference  to  all  questions  of  religious 
faith  and  practice,  is  a  remarkable  illustration  of 
the  well-grounded  character  of  this  stock.  This 
fact  stands  out  as  one  of  the  marked  distinguish 
ing  peculiarities  of  the  Southern  people.  They 
believe  and  worship  as  their  forefathers  did. 
They  preach  the  same  faith  that  was  preached  one 
hundred  years  ago,  only  with  less  of  the  terrors  of 
the  law.  I  refer  to  those  who  are  of  the  Calvinistic 
faith.  Many  have  gone  into  other  churches,  and 
in  the  course  of  more  than  a  century,  the  Cove 
nanter  blood  has  been  largely  intermingled  with 
that  of  other  sects.  But  the  faith  and  the  practice 
of  those  who  still  adhere  to  the  grand  old  church 
remain  substantially  as  in  colonial  days.  The 
strictness  of  former  ideas  alone  has  yielded  to 
greater  liberality.  On  all  the  vital  moral  questions 
of  the  time,  the  lofty  standard  of  the  old  Cove 
nanters,  slightly  relaxed,  is  maintained  to-day. 

There  is  a  high  conservatism  in  religious  thought 
in  the  South  which  is  remarkable.  It  is  found 
only  in  that  quarter.  ]!^o  new  theories,  no  new 
creeds,  no  new  religions  make  any  headway. 
They  soon  perish  and  die  out.  Infidelity,  agnosti 
cism,  spiritualism,  universalism,  and  the  infinite 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     177 

number  of  new  theories  prevalent  in  New  England, 
find  no  home  in  the  South.  The  extreme  austerity 
of  the  early  Covenanter  may  possibly  still  cast 
its  gloom  over  their  descendants.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  they  are  unquestionably  a  thoughtful,  seri 
ous,  conscientious  people.  There  is,  as  a  general 
rule,  but  little  of  the  light-hearted  merriness,  the 
sparkling  gayety  of  the  frolicksome  Cavalier  of 
Old  Virginia,  or  of  Old  England  about  them.  The 
men  are  earnest,  ambitious  of  fame  and  power, 
fond  of  home,  knightly  toward  women,  and  jealous 
of  their  honor. 

The  women  are  modest,  graceful  and  lovely. 
They  shrink  from  notoriety,  and  have  no  desire 
for  the  applause  of  the  rostrum,  or  the  lecture  plat 
form,  or  to  mingle  in  the  exciting  scenes  of  a  ward 
election,  or  to  propagate  new  religions.  They  are 
content  to  be  as  their  mothers  were  :  virtuous, 
gentle,  the  guides  of  the  family,  the  counselors  of 
their  husbands,  the  ornaments  of  society;  adorning 
the  home,  and  reigning  supreme  in  it  with  queenly 
grace,  filling  the  atmosphere  around  them  \vith  the 
sweet  fragrance  of  love. 

Nowhere  in  the  world  is  public  sentiment  more 
exacting  as  to  ethical    and    religious  observances 
and  practices.     It  demands  propriety  of  conduct, 
15 


178  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

honorable  deportment,  and  purity  of  life.  Things 
sacred  —  home,  religion,  the  Sabbath,  and  the 
church — must  be  treated  with  the  most  reverent 
respect.  Herein  appears  the  spirit  of  the  pious 
old  Covenanters.  Some  things  are  deemed  too 
high  even  for  the  State  to  touch.  They  are  placed 
beyond  its  reach,  and  are  excepted  out  of  the 
powers  of  government.  The  perfect  freedom  of 
religion  from  the  first  was  guaranteed  against  all 
human  power.  This  was  largely  the  work  of  the 
Covenanter.  While  the  legislature  of  Virginia,  as 
already  shown,  was  struggling  with  th'e  old  bigotry 
of  the  State,  abolishing  tithes  and  an  established 
church,  imposed  upon  the  people  by  the  early 
Cavaliers,  the  Covenanters  both  in  that  State  and 
in  New  York,  were  demanding,  and  successfully, 
too,  an  absolute  divorce  of  Church  and  State. 
This  was  the  yoke  which  had  galled  them.  This 
it  was  which  caused  them  to  quit  their  peaceful 
homes  in  Ireland,  and  to  seek  the  wilderness, 
where  they  might  found  a  free  church.  Never 
did  men  come  with  higher,  purer,  nobler  purposes. 
And  never  did  men  consecrate,  themselves  to  their 
great  work  with  more  heroic  or  with  sublimer 
courage.  It  sometimes  seems  to  be  forgotten  that 
the  Covenanters,  quite  as  much  as  the  Puritans 


THE  COVENANTER  AND  THE  CAVALIER.     1*79 

and  the  Pilgrims,  fled  to  this  land  to  escape  perse 
cution.  And  it  is  true  of  them,  as  it  is  not  of  the 
Puritans,  however  it  may  be  of  the  Pilgrims,  that 

"  They  left  unstained  what  there  they  found, 
Freedom  to  worship  God." 


180  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS. 

The  Puritans — Grand  history  since  1761 — Important  influence 
in  England — Revolution  started  by  Covenanters  in  (Scot 
land—Puritans  leave  England — Covenanters  a  better  race 
than  the  Puritans — Comparison  of  two  races — The  Church 
in  Massachusetts— A  cruel  theocracy— Enumeration  of 
cruelties,  with  authorities  cited — Annals  stained  with  nar 
rowness  and  crimes — Whipping,  banishment,  and  hang 
ing—Children  condemned  to  banishment — Intolerance — 
Reason  given  for  cruelties  and  intolerance— Reasons  ex 
amined — Not  the  best  educated  people  in  the  Colonies — 
Massachusetts  as  the  leader  of  liberal  ideas  — Caste — Dif 
ference  between  Puritans  and  Covenanters  as  to  liberal 
ideas — Massachusetts  as  to  the  equality  of  men  before  the 
law. 

The  length  of  this  discussion  forbids  that  I 
should  do  more  than  glance  at  the  Puritan,  the 
other  principal  race  justly  credited  with  having 
contributed  largely  toward  founding  our  institu 
tions.  JS"o  one  will  deny  their  claim  to  a  large 
share  in  the  glory  of  having  made  this  great  coun 
try  what  it  is.  The  only  question  is  whether  they 
do  not  demand,  and  have  not  received,  too  much 
credit.  In  considering  this  race  we  meet  a  history, 
since  1761,  replete  with  noble  deeds  and  abounding 
in  distinguished  names.  It  is  luminous  and  re- 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.          181 

splendent  in  statesmanship,  in  oratory,  in  letters, 
in  science,  and  in  all  the  industrial  arts.  Its  mate 
rial,  like  its  intellectual  development,  has  indeed 
been  marvelous.  Unlike  the  Covenanters,  while 
it  has  accomplished  splendid  things,  it  has  had  its 
historians  to  proclaim  its  deeds.  Pens  and  tongues, 
many  in  number  and  of  unquestioned  ability,  have 
made  known  to  the  world  all  that  the  Puritans 
have  done.  The  land  rings  with  their  praise. 
There  is  not  a  corner  of  the  world  in  which  it  has 
not  been  sounded.  And  let  not  a  single  laurel 
that  hangs  on  the  monuments  of  their  greatness  be 
taken  away,  for  their  achievements  are  a  part  of 
the  common  glory  of  our  country. 

I  freely  and  gladly  acknowledge  that  the  Puri- 
itans  had  a  large  agency  in  establishing  political 
and  religious  freedom  in  England.  Unquestion 
ably,  they  helped  to  set  in  motion  currents  of 
thought,  which,  though  small  at  first,  finally  be 
came  so  broad,  so  deep  and  so. resistless  that  they 
swept  away  the  monarchy,  and  up-rooted  many 
hoary  wrongs  and  iniquitous,  practices.  But  the 
Puritans  were  not  alojie  in  the  accomplishment  of 
that,  the  most  important  of  politico-religious  revo 
lutions,  and  the  forerunner  of  all  subsequent  ones. 
They  were  powerfully  aided  by  the  Separatists, 
or  the  Independents,  and  by  the  dissenters  and 


182  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

non-conformists  of  all  kinds,  as  well  as  by  many 
lovers  of  liberty  who  were  attached  to  no  particular 
ecclesiastical  organization.  Unquestionably  the 
action  of  the  Scotch  Covenanters,  or  Presbyterians, 
previous  to  this  time,  in  resisting  successfully  both 
the  King  and  the  Church  of  England,  in  their  de 
termined  efforts  to  fasten  on  the  people  of  Scot 
land  a  liturgy  and  an  ecclesiastical  polity  they 
hated,  had  a  great  reactionary  influence  on  the 
still  incipient  movement  in  England.  We  have 
already  seen,  according  to  Macaulay,  that  the  suc 
cessful  revolution  which  began  in  Scotland,  in  re 
sisting  the  enforcement  of  the  liturgy,  spread  to 
England,  and  that  to  it  the  latter  country  owed 
her  freedom. 

Campbell  says:  "  James  drove  out  of  Scotland 
many  of  the  leading  ministers;  they  took  refuge 
in  England,  to  disseminate  there  the  doctrines  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  standing  above  the  state, 
and  in  time  their  teaching  developed  into  action." 

So  it  appears,  that  while  the  Puritans  and  the 
Separatists  (the  Pilgrims),  were  struggling  for 
reforms  in  the  established  Church  in  England, — 
the  former  remaining  in  the  Church  and  seeking 
to  correct  its  abuses,  and  the  latter  going  out  of  it 
and  insisting  on  its  entire  separation  from  the 
State, — the  Covenanters  of  Scotland  had  already 


THE   COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.  183 

achieved  these  reforms  by  the  revolution  spoken 
of  above.  They  had  previously  virtually  driven 
the  Church  of  England  from  their  country.  This 
revolution  in  England,  as  we  have  seen,  resulted 
in  the  overthrow  of  the  monarchy,  and  in  the  end 
in  the  establishment  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 
Before  this  was  accomplished,  however,  many  of 
the  Puritans, 'as  well  as  Pilgrims,  suffering  under 
persecutions  and  despairing  of  any  relief,  had 
abandoned  their  country,  and  found  an  asylum  in 
the  wilderness  of  Massachusetts. 

It  is  riot  my  purpose  to  run  an  extended  parallel 
between  the  Puritans  and  the  Covenanters.  Both 
were  great  races,  and  both  performed  a  leading 
part  in  making  the  republic  what  it  is.  But  one 
race  has  been  applauded  and  glorified  in  all  the  lit 
erature  of  the  century,  while  the  other  has  been 
neglected  and  almost  forgotten.  Let  justice  be 
done  to  the  one  as  well  as  the  other.  It  must  be 
kept  in  mind  that  the  early  history  of  the  Puritans 
in  this  country,  is  far  from  being  so  bright  as  that 
after  1761. 

I  venture  to  state,  and  I  believe  I  will  be  un 
qualifiedly  upheld  in  my  opinion,  in  the  face  of  all 
that  has  been  written  and  sung  in  praise  of  the 
Puritans,  that  the  Covenanters,  taking  their  beliefs, 
their  practices,  and  their  acts  as  a  basis  of  estima- 


184     COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

tion,  were  all  in  all,  a  tetter  and  equally  as  great  a 
race  of  men  as  the  Puritans.  For  want  of  space, 
I  can  only  briefly  cite  a  few  facts  to  sustain  this 
opinion: 

No  one  will  question  the  statement  that  in  devo 
tion  to  the  cause  of  civil  liberty,  both  in  the 
Colonies,  and  in  their  respective  native  lands,  the 
Covenanters  were  always  as  true  as  the  Puritans. 
Both  were  faithful,  with  singular  unanimity,  to 
the  cause  of  Independence  in  the  days  of  the 
Revolution. 

But  in  reference  to  religious  liberty,  the  two 
races  were  as  unlike  in  the  Colonies  as  light  and 
darkness.  The  history  of  one  is  shadowed  by  nar 
rowness  and  often  by  crimes;  the  other  reflects 
only  the  soft  mellow  light  of  toleration.  It  is  freely 
admitted  that  the  Covenanters,  at  one  time  in 
Scotland,  at  an  early  day,  were  guilty  of  persecu 
tion.  But  they  never  were  so  in  Ireland,  where 
they  went  prior  to  the  settlement  of  the  Puritans 
in  Salem.  In  the  Colonies  they  nowhere  advocated 
or  practiced  intolerance.  They  had  felt  the  iron 
yoke  of  bigotry  on  their  own  necks,  and  in  the 
bitter  school  of  experience  and  suffering  they  had 
learned  the  beauties  of  forbearance.  They  de 
nounced  the  union  of  Church  and  State.  They 
favored  no  religious  tests  of  any  kind,  holding  to 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.          185 

the  sacred  right  of  religious  li.berty.  No  person 
was  persecuted  on  account  of  his  religious  opin 
ions.  Quakers  and  Baptists  were  neither  banished, 
nor  whipped,  nor  hanged  for  their  heretical  opin 
ions.  No  one  was  ever  hanged  by  them  for  witch 
craft.  The  sacred  precincts  of  the  family  were 
never  entered  to  prescribe  the  kind  of  garments 
women  should  wear,  and  what  they  should  not 
wear.* 

They  did  not  attempt  to  exercise  an  immediate 
supervision  over  the  conduct  of  individuals  in  the 
community  in  any  of  their  private  or  public  acts 
and  relations.  They  had  no  selectmen,  or  over 
seers,  who  were  required  to  have  a  special  over 
sight  over  the  education,  the  behavior,  and  the  oc 
cupations  of  children  within  their  jurisdiction,  and 
"to  see  that  they  were  taught  to  read,  to  under 
stand  the  principles  of  religion,  the  nature  of  the 
laws ;  also  to  spin,  to  knit  and  to  weave ;  a  fixed 
quantity  of  'lining,  cotton,  or  wooling'  being  re 
quired  to  be  spun  by  each  family ."f  They  had  no 
sumptuary  laws  fixing  the  price  of  all  articles  sold 
in  the  community ;  "  of  all  labor,  and  of  all  serv 
ants'  wages. "J  Heavy  fines  and  penalties  were 
never  imposed  by  them  on  men  for  non-attendance 

*  Bryant's  History,  Vol.  II,  62.         t  Id.,  64.        J  Id.,  62. 


186  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

at  church,  or  for  failing  to  observe  fast  days.  All 
of  these  were  Puritan  practices  or  requirements. 

In  short,  the  Covenanters,  though  austere  and 
rigid  in  all  church  observances,  never  deprived 
"the  citizen  of  every  vestige  of  volition,  of  every 
exercise  of  freedom,  of  every  attribute  of  manhood, 
nor  made  him  the  blind  slave  of  a  most  narrow, 
bitter,  and  intolerant  theocracy.  » 

The  church  in  Massachusetts  was  the  State.  The 
magistrates  were  only  its  willing  instruments  to 
execute  its  fanatical  and  intolerant  will.  In  all 
the  Colony  there  was  not,  and  there  could  not  be, 
a  free  conscience  or  a  free  man.  Even  the  magis 
trates  and  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  were  enslaved 
by  their  own  dark  devices.  They  were  made 
gloomy  by  the  pall  of  superstition  and  bigotry 
which  they  threw  over  their  own  minds  and  con 
sciences,  as  well  as  over  those  of  their  deluded  fol 
lowers.  In  all  the  Colonies,  so  far  as  personal  and 
religious  liberty  was  concerned,  no  picture  so  som 
ber  and  forbidding,  so  absolutely  without  one 
gleam  of  light,  can  be  found  as  that  of  Massachu 
setts  and  Connecticut  in  their  earlier  days.  The 
press  was  muzzled,  and  all  free  speech  suppressed. 
No  man  dared  to  censure  or  condemn  the  church, 
the  ministers,  the  State,  or  the  magistrates,  or  to 
utter  one  word  of  independent  thought  contrary  to 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.          187 

the  policy  of  those  in  authority.  And  no  man 
could  vote,  or  was  even  a  citizen,  unless  he  was  a 
member  of  the  church.  Was  this  condition  any 
thing  short  of  the  most  abject  slavery?  Freemen 
of  Massachusetts  !  They  were  slaves  all — slaves  of 
a  terrible  and  austere  fanaticism,  and  of  a  cruel 
theocracy. 

Even  the  town  meetings,  the  boast  and  the  glory 
of  Massachusetts,  were  most  undemocratic.  The 
people  took  part  in  them,  it  is  true;  but  as  Prof. 
Alexander  White  pertinently  asks:  "Who  were 
the  people  ?  "  He  answers  :  "  The  members  of 
the  Congregational  Church.  Voting  and  office- 
'holding  are  (were)  limited  to  church  members. 
The  right  of  citizenship  is  (was)  decided  by  the 
church  register.  The  form  of  the  government  is 
(was)  'a  theocracy.  The  real  rulers  are  (were)  the 
church  officials,  more  intolerant  of  personal  liberty 
than  Archbishop  Laud  himself.  .  .  .  Hardly 
one-fifth  of  the  adult  population  belonged  to  the 
Congregational  Church,  but  this  oligarchy  of 
*  saints'  ruled  the  rest  with  a  rod  of  iron."* 

On  all  these  points,  it  would  be  easy  to  multiply 
authorities,  but  I  shall  quote  only  historians  who 
are  in  deepest  sympathy  with  the  Puritans. 

*  Proceedings  of  Scotch  Irish  Congress,  1892,  Vol.  IV,  121. 


188  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

Thus,  Douglas  Campbell,  who  is  their  constant 
eulogist,  says : 

"  On  the  other  hand,  Massachusetts  showed  her 
English  origin  by  the  exhibition  of  some  less  pleas 
ing  characteristics.  She  was  the  only  one  of  the  Col 
onies,  except  Connecticut,  in  which  witches  were  put 
to  death ;  she  alone  hanged  the  inoffensive  Quakers, 
and  her  records  tell  the  worst  tale — with  the  ex 
ception  of  those  of  Virginia — regarding  the  atroc 
ities  committed  on  the  Indians,  who  were  robbed 
of  their  land  and  constantly  kidnaped  and  sold  as 
slaves  to  the  Southern  planters.  So,  too,  she, 
longer  than  almost  any  other  Colony,  clung  to  the 
censorship  of  the  press,  and  longer  than  almost' 
any  other  state  to  the  union  between  the  State  and 
the  Church."* 

Again  he  says: 

"They"  (the  Independents  under  Cromwell) 
alone  stood  up  and  demanded  liberty  for  others,  as 
well  as  for  themselves.  They  alone  proclaimed  the 
principle  of  religious  toleration,  denounced  the 
witch-madness,  and  asked,  with  Milton,  that  the 
press  should  be  left  untrammeled." 

"But  with  these  novel  ideas  the  founders  of 
Massachusetts,  who  had  left  England  at  an  earlier 
date,  were,  in  the  main,  unacquainted.  At  home 

*  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  414. 


THE    COVENANTERS   AND    THE    PURITANS.          189 

they  had  belonged  to  the  established  church. 
Their  ministers  were  Episcopalians,  who,  until 
Laud  began  his  persecuting  rule,  had  been  satisfied 
with  Episcopacy.  They  believed  firmly  in  a  union 
of  Church  and  State,  and  in  the  suppression  of  all 
schisms,  provided  theirs  was  the  church  and  the  sup 
pression  of  schisms  was  intrusted  to  their  hands.'7  *  . 

I    quote    from    a    distinguished    son    of    Massa 
chusetts,  Charles  Francis  Adams  : 

u  The  offense,  as  well  as  the  policy  to  be  pursued 
by  the  government,  was  explicitly  and  unmistaka 
bly  set  forth  by  the  chief  executive  and  the  pre 
siding  officer  at  the  trial  of  Airs.  Anne  Hut  chin  son, 
when  Governor  Winthrop  said  to  her : 
4  Your  course  is  not  to  be  suffered.  .  .  .  We 
see  not  that  any  should  have  authority  to  set  up 
any  other  exercises  beside  what  authority  hath 
already  set  up.'  .  .  .  But  Winthrop's  words 
speak'  for  themselves ;  and  in  the  subsequent  his 
tory  of  Massachusetts,  the  policy  set  forth  in  them 
was  maintained  and  vigorously  enforced  by  fre 
quent  infliction  of  the  penalties  of  banishment  and 
death.  The  public  sentiment  behind  the  policy, 
and  which  insured  its  enforcement,  expressed  itself 
in  many  forms."  f 

*  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  413. 

t  Massachusetts,  its  Historians  and  its  History,  13,  14. 


190  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

In  1661,  Samuel  Willard  said  :  "  I  perceive  they 
are  mistaken  in  the  designs  of  our  first  planters, 
whose  business  was  not  toleration  ;  but  were  pro 
fessed  enemies  of  it,  and  could  leave  the  world 
professing  they  died  no  libertines.'"  * 

Again.  .  .  .  '  "  It  is  putting  the  case  none  too 
strongly^to  say  that  for  nearly  half  a  century,  until 
1680,  religious  conformity  of  a  rigid  character  was 
in  Massachusetts  enforced,  by  all  necessary  ec 
clesiastical  and  civil  compulsion.  During  that 
period,  the  clergy  was  inquisitorial,  the  magistrates 
severe."  f 

"  If  in  the  somewhat  arid  as  well  as  meager 
record  of  Massachusetts' seventeenth  century  utter 
ances,  there  are  any  which,  subsequent  to  1637, 
favor  religious  toleration,  or  breathe  the  spirit  of 
toleration,  I  am  not  familiar  with  them,  and  would 
much  like  to  have  my  attention  called  to  them."  J 

When  we  come  to  examine  the  results  of  this 
theocratic  government  in  Massachusetts,  we  find 
that  its  annals  are  stained  with  narrowness,  bigotry, 
superstition  and  crime.  If  there  be  in  the  history 
of  civilization  pages  of  darker  crimes  and  cruelties 
against  men,  than  those  of  this  Colony,  in  the 

*  Massachusetts,  its  Historians  and  its  History,  18. 

*  Id.,  17.  %  Id.,  27. 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.          191 

seventeenth  century,  then  we  must  search  the 
records  of  the  Inquisition  to  find  them. 

Says  Mr.  Adams,  reviewing  this  history,  and  evi 
dently  with  no  impartial  mind  :  "  Wholesale  pro 
scription,  frequent  banishment  under  penalty  of 
death  in  case  of  return,  the  infliction  of  punish 
ments  both  cruel  and  degrading,  amounting  to 
torture,  and  that  regardless  of  the  sex  of  those 
punished  ;  the  systematic  enforcement  of  rigid  con 
formity  through  long  periods  of  time — all  these 
things  are  a  part  of  the  record — and  in  these  bad 
respects  it  is  not  at  once  apparent  how  the  Massa 
chusetts  record  differs  from  those  of  Spain  or 
France  or  England."  * 

Again  he  says;  "But  there  that  record  is,  and 
it  will  not  out.  Roger  Williams,  John  Wheel 
wright,  and  Anne  Hutchinson  come  back  from 
their  banishment  and  stand  there  as  witnesses;  the 
Quakers  and  Baptists,  with  eyes  that  forever  glare, 
swing  from  the  gallows  or  turn  about  at  the  cart's 
tail.  In  Spain  it  was  the  dungeon,  the  rack,  and 
the- fagot ;  in  Massachusetts  it  was  banishment,  the 
whip,  and  the  gibbet."  f 

This  is  the  testimony  of  a  Puritan  and  a  Massa 
chusetts  man.  I  quote  again  his  words:  "  Dur 
ing  the  forty  years  which  immediately  followed  the 

*  Adams,  41,  42.  t  Id.,  34. 


192  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

synod  of  1637  dissenters  and  intruders  were  ac 
cordingly  punished  in  the  Colony,  or  expelled  from 
the  Colony,  under  the  penalty  of  death  in  case  of 
their  return.  Nor  was  the  threat  of  this  penalty 
an  empty  one."  * 

Here  he  quotes  from  Palfrey,  a  Massachusetts 
historian,  who  says  :  u  The  provision  which  threat 
ened  with  death  persons  returning  after  being  ban 
ished  was  no  novelty  in  Massachusetts  legislation. 
It  had  been  resorted  to  over  and  over  again  through 
a  course  of  years,  and  had  never  once  failed  of  its 
intended  effect."  f  That  is,  over  and  over  again 
persons  who  had  been  banished  on  account  of  their 
religious  opinions  had  been  hanged  on  returning. 
In  1659  William  Robinson,  Marmaduke  Stevenson, 
and  Mary  Dyer,  all  Quakers,  were  hanged  on  Bos 
ton  Common  under  this  very  law.  And  the  mag- 
.  istrates  would  not  incur  the  expense  of  coffins  for 
their  burial,  and  so  their  bodies  were  stripped  and 
thrown  into  a  pit  unburied.J 

No  one  can  doubt  the  absence  of  the  spirit  of 
liberty  in  the  Puritan  as  ho  reads  one  of  the  laws 
passed  about  this  time  (1658  or  1659)  :  "  That  all 
children  and  servants  and  others  that  for  conscience 
sake  can  not  come  to  their  meetings  to  worship,  and 

»  Adams,  32 ;  Palfrey,  Vol.  II,  471 .  t  Adams,  32. 

t  Bryaut's'Popular  History,  U.  S.,  Vol.  II,  193,  194. 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.  193 

have  not  estates  in  their  hands  to  answer  their 
fines,  must  be  sold  for  slaves  to  the  Barbadoes,  or 
Virginia,  or  other  remote  parts."  * 

Under  this  law  Daniel  and  Provided  Southwick, 
son  and  daughter  of  Lawrence  South  wick,  who 
had  been  banished  under  penalty  of  death — two 
poor  children  with  no  property — were  condemned 
to  be  sold  into  slavery,  and  would  have  been  sold, 
but  no  shipmaster  in  Boston  would  transport 
them,  f 

Read  this  order  directed  to  the  marshal,  signed 
by  Edward  Rawson,  secretary  :  "You  are  to  take 
with  you  the  executioner  and .  repair  to  the  house 
of  correction,  and  there  see  him  cut  off  the  right 
ears  of  John  Copeland,  Christopher  Holder,  and 
John  Rous,  Quakers.''  J 

Men  and  women  were  tied  to  the  cart's  tail  and 
scourged  from  town  to  town.  This  happened  also 
in  New  Hampshire,  which  then  belonged  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Bay.  Three  women  preaching 
in  Dover  were  driven  from  constable  to  constable 
through  several  towns,  receiving  ten  lashes  in  each 
town.  This  was  in  cold  weather  in  December, 
1662.  "  Josiah  South  wick,  an  elder  brother  of  the 

*  Bryant's  Popular  History,  IT.  S.,  Vol.  II,  190. 
tld.,  190.  J  Id.,  190. 

16 


194     COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

two  Southwick  children,  for  returning  from  ban 
ishment,  was  whipped  through  Boston,  Iloxbury, 
and  Bedham,  and  cast  off  into  the  wilderness."* 

Says  Bancroft :  "  A  tine  was  imposed  on  such  as 
should  entertain  any  of  the  accursed  sect,"  .  .  "and 
a  Quaker,  after  the  first  conviction,  was  to  lose  one 
ear  ;  after  the  second,  the  other  ;  after  the  third,  to 
have  the  tongue  bored  with  a  red-hot  iron."f 

Look  on  this  remarkable  picture  of  1692:  Cot 
ton  Mather,  the  greatest  of  Massachusetts  divines, 
excepting  Jonathan  Edwards,  sitting  on  horseback 
at  the  foot  of  the  scaffold  denouncing  a  brother 
minister,  George  Burroughs,  who  died  before  his 
eyes  for  no  other  crime  than  a  denial  of  belief  in 
witchcraft.^  It  was  shocking  to  hang  people  be 
cause  they  were  accused  of  being  witches,  but  to 
hang  them  for  unbelief  in  that  miserable  delusion 
was  superlatively  monstrous. 

The  foregoing  acts  of  cruelty  are  given  to  illu 
strate  the  spirit  of  Puritanism  in  New  England. 
It  is  most  natural  that  its  historians  should  pass 
over  this  phase  of  that  remarkable  people  as  lightly 
as  possible.  But  Mr.  Adams,  from  whom  I  have 
already  quoted,  frankly  admits  the  truth  of  the 

*  Bryant's  History  U.  S.,  Vol.  II,  190. 
t  Bancroft's  History  (15th  ed.),  Vol.  I,  452. 
t  Prof.  Alexander  White,  Ph.  D.,  in  Scotch-Irish  Congress, 
Atlanta,  1892,  Vol.  IV,  122. 


THE   COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.  195 

record,  so  far  as  the  naked  question  of  religious  in 
tolerance  is  concerned,  taking  good  care,  however, 
to  say  but  little  about  the  shocking  crimes  perpe 
trated  in  the  name  of  religion.  He  says:  "The 
question  of  religious  toleration  was,  so  far  as  Mas 
sachusetts  could  decide  it,  decided  in  1637  in  the 
negative.  .  .  .  But  it  is  curious  to  note  from 
that  day  to  this  how  the  exponents  of  Massachu 
setts  polity  and  thought,  whether  religious  or  his 
torical,  have,  so  to  speak,  wriggled  and  squirmed 
in  the  presence  of  the  record — '  shuffling,'  as  George 
Bishop,  the  Quaker  writer,  expressed  it  in  1703, 
'and  endeavoring  to  evade  the  guilt  of  it,  being 
ashamed  to  own  it.  So  that  they  seldom  mention  it 
to  any  purpose  even  in  their  histories.7  They  did 
so  in  1637  when  they  were  making  the  record  up ; 
they  have  done  so  ever  since.  There  was  almost 
no  form  of  sophistry  to  which  the  founders  of  Mas 
sachusetts  did  not  have  recourse  then,  for  the}7 
sinned  against  light,  though  they  deceived  them 
selves  while  sinning;  and  there  is  no  form  of  so 
phistry  to  which  the  historians  of  Massachusetts 
have  not  had  recourse  since,  really  deceiving  them 
selves  in  their  attempt  to  deceive  others."  * 

That  is  very  candid  and  explicit  as  to  the  fact. 
But  I  am  not  sure  but  that  Mr.  Adams  "  wriggles  " 
*  Adams,  12. 


196  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

a  little  himself  when  he  comes  to  explain  the  cause 
of  this  very  extraordinary  condition  of  things  in 
Massachusetts  under  Puritan  domination.  If  I 
understand  him,  he  attributes  all  the  narrowness  of 
the  theocracy  of  Massachusetts  to  the  narrowness 
of  the  prevailing  religion — Calvinism.  It  may  oc 
cur  to  reflecting  minds  free  from  bias  and  partiality, 
and  entirely  removed  from  the  influence  of  what 
he  calls  the  "filio  pietistic"  feeling,  that  the  logical 
inference  is  that  the  narrowness  of  their  religion 
arose  from  the  narrowness  of  the  minds  of  the  pro 
fessors  of  that  religion.  Calvinism  did  not  make 
William  the  Silent  and  the  people  of  Holland  blind 
and  intolerant,  with  whose  example  the  Puritans 
were  perfectly  familiar.  There  the  principle  of 
moderation  was  first  proclaimed  and  practiced, 
even  while  the  people  were  subject  to  the  most  re 
morseless  persecutions  by  the  Catholics  recorded 
in  all  history.  Nor  did  Calvinism  make  the  Cov 
enanters  in  Ulster  narrow.  There  they  lived  a 
quiet,  peaceful  life  of  Christian  charity,  molesting 
no  one,  and  seeking  to  molest  no  one,  on  account 
of  his  religious  opinions.  With  the  example  of 
these  people,  the  early  Puritans  of  Massachusetts 
ought  to  have  been  familiar,  and  some  of  them  no 
doubt  were.  Calvinism  did  not  cause  the  Cove 
nanters  of  Massachusetts,  who  came  later,  nor  those 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.  197 

of  Pennsylvania,  of  Virginia,  of  South  Carolina, 
of  New  Jersey,  nor  anywhere  else  in  the  Colonies, 
to  be  narrow  in  respect  to  toleration.  On  the  con 
trary,  they  every-where  demanded  freedom  for  all 
religions.  Calvinism  did  not  make  Cromwell  and 
his  army  of  Independents  intolerant.  On  the  con 
trary,  they  demanded  liberty  of  conscience  for 
others  as  well  as  for  themselves.  And  Calvinism 
did  not  influence  the  Dutch  of  New  York  to  be 
narrow  and  tyrannical  during  the  sixty  years  they 
controlled  that  Colony.  It  is  freely  admitted  that 
the  Calvinists  of  Geneva  and  the  early  Calvinists 
of  Scotland  did  persecute  men  on  account  of  their 
religious  belief;  but  this  was  at  an  early  day,  when 
it  was  the  universal  practice  among  all  sects  in 
Europe. 

On  reading  Mr.  Adams^  most  interesting  little 
book,  from  which  I  have  quoted,  one  can  scarcely 
escape  a  slight  suspicion  that  his  hard  blows  were 
aimed  at  Calvinism  more  than  at  the  men  whom 
he  arraigns  for  preaching  and  acting  as  they  did 
in  Massachusetts.  He  squirms,  as  he  terms  it,  at 
their  record,  which  he  says  they  "  can  not  escape," 
but  seeks  to  palliate  their  bad  acts  by  laying  the 
blame  on  the  religion  and  letting  the  actors  escape. 
The  world  can  not  thus  be  deceived.  The  truth 
is,  the  founders  of  Massachusetts  were  a  narrow, 


198     COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

superstitions,  stern  set  of  men,  and  have  left  a 
gloomy  record  behind  them,  which  no  skillful  use 
of  words  and  sophistry  can  render  bright  or  lova 
ble.  The  most  and  the  utmost  that  can  be  said  in 
their  defense  is,  that  it  was  the  fashion  and  the 
spirit  of  the  age  to  persecute,  the  only  exceptions 
being  in  the  Netherlands,  in  Ulster,  in  England 
under  Cromwell,  and  in  the  Dutch  Colony  of  New 
York,  and  in  the  Colonies  of  Maryland,  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  Rhode  Island,  all  being  Calvinistic. 
Mr.  Bancroft  admits  the  offenses  of  Massachusetts, 
but  by  flowery,  stilted  rhetoric  seeks  to  palliate  and 
excuse  them.  He  seems  almost  to  consider  them 
virtues. 

Now,  what  did  Massachusetts — the  Puritans — 
accomplish  for  the  world  during  its  first  century 
and  a  half  of  existence?  Let  Mr.  Adams  answer: 

"Asa  period" — the  theological  period  from  1637 
to  1761 — "it  was  singularly  barren,  almost  incon 
ceivably  somber.  It  has  left  behind  it  a  not  incon 
siderable  residuum  of  printed  matter,  mainly  theo 
logical,  but  of  little,  if  indeed  any,  literary  value. 
Than  this  residuum  there  can,  indeed,  *  be  no  bet 
ter  proof  how  fully  Puritanism  had  done  its  de 
structive  work.'  ...  In  the  mother  country 
that  period  was  a  fruitful  season,  for  it  began  with 
Milton  and  closed  with  Johnson.'  In 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.          199 

Massachusetts,  of  writers  or  thinkers  whose  names 
are  still  remembered,  though  their  works  have 
passed  into  oblivion,  Cotton  Mather  and  Jonathan 
Edwards  can  alone  be  named.  They  were,  indeed, 
typical  of  the  time — strange  products  of  a  period  at 
once  provincial  and  glacial — huge  literary  bowlders 
deposited  by  the  receding  ice."  * 

"  But  it  is  a  fact  worthy  of  note  that  the  Mag- 
nalia  (by  Cotton  Mather)  stands  to-day  the  one 
single  literary  landmark  in  a  century  and  a  half  of 
colonial  and  provincial  life — a  geological  relic  of  a 
glacial  period — a  period  which,  in  pure  letters,  pro 
duced,  so  far  as  Massachusetts  was  concerned,  ab 
solutely  nothing  else,  not  a  poem,  nor  an  essay,  nor 
a  memoir,  nor  a  work  of  fancy  or  fiction  of  which 
the  world  has  cared  to  take  note."  f 

It  is  said  these  Puritans  were  highly  educated, 
and  it  is  sometimes  said  they  were  the  best  educated 
people  in  the  Colonies.  While  denying  the  latter 
assertion,  I  admit  the  former,  but  insist  that  the 
fact  only  makes  their  case  the  worse  by  reason  of 
it.  If  they  had  been  simply  ignorant  fanatics,  the 
world  could  make  great  allowance  for  them  on  ac 
count  of  that  ignorance.  But  as  Mr.  Adams  says  : 
"They  sinned  against  light."  The  leaders  were 
educated  in  a  double  sense;  they  had  learning,  and 

*  Adams,  64,  75 ;  quoting  Doyle.  t  Id.,  67. 


200  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

they  had  had  experience  in  the  school  of  intolerance 
and  persecution.  The  latter,  at  least,  if  not  the 
formeiv.should  have  taught  them  wisdom,  as  it  had 
taught  the  Covenanters  and  the  people  of  the 
Netherlands  a  noble  knowledge. 

But  were  the  Puritans  of  New  England  the  best 
educated  people  in  the  Colonies  ?  This  has  already 
been  disproved  in  a  previous  chapter.  There  is  no 
proof  of  it,  except  the  assertion  of  their  own  too 
partial  friends.  It  was  with  them,  as  it  was  with 
the  Oovenanters  and  the  English  of  that  day,  and 
of  this  day  also.  Some  were  well  educated,  some 
were  moderately  well  educated,  and  many  were 
not  educated  at  all,  or  very  imperfectly  so.  The 
means  of  universal  education  did  not  exist  in 
England  at  the  time  the  Puritans  emigrated  to 
America.  It  would  be  remarkable  to  suppose  that 
all  who  came  over  were  well  educated.  They  had 
had  no  better  chance  for  universal  education 
among  them,  than  the  Covenanters  had  had  when 
they  emigrated,  nor  even  so  good  a  chance.  The 
fact  is  about  this:  The  world  has  so  long  been 
accustomed  to  hear  that  the  Puritans  were  the 
best  educated  people  in  the  Colonies,  and  so  little 
has  been  published,  or  even  known  about  either  the 
Covenanters  in  the  Colonies,  or  their  education, 
that  it  has  been  assumed  that  the  former  were 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.  201 

greatly  superior  in  this  respect  to  the  latter.  I 
have  referred  to  the  fact  that  of  the  three  hundred 
and  nineteen  Covenanters  who  applied  to  Governor 
Shute,  of  Massachusetts,  in  1718,  for  leave  to  settle 
on  the  lands  of  that  Colony,  all  signed  their  own 
names  to  the  petition  except  thirteen.  Can  Massa 
chusetts  show  a  better  record  among  her  first 
settlers?  It  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  the  Scotch 
or  Covenanter  Colony  planted  in  Ulster,  by  James 
I,  from  which  most  of  the  Covenanters  emigrated 
to  this  country,  were  "picked  men;"  superior 
men  in  all  respects,  and  that  education  with  them 
was  always  a  matter  of  the  highest  consideration 
in  Ireland,  as  it  had  been  in  Scotland. 

It  has  been  assumed  and  proclaimed  a  thousand 
times  that  Puritan  Massachusetts  has  been  the 
leader  of  the  liberal  and  advanced  political  thought 
of  this  country.  In  the  following  extract  from 
Mr.  Adams'  book,  we  have  a  little  boasting,  a 
little  "ancestry  worship,"  as  he  styles  it. 

"In  that  field"  (in  the  field  of  political  activity) 
"  Massachusetts  was  always  at  home — it  enjoyed 
an  easy  American  supremacy  which  even  its  ice 
age  did  not  wholly  arrest.  And  now  when  the 
struggle  against  superstition  had  drawn  to  a  close, 
that  against  caste  came  again  to  the  front,  with 
17 


202     COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

Massachusetts  still  in  the  van.  Indeed  on  this  issue, 
in  1837,  as  in  1635,  the  proper  and  natural  place  for 
the  Puritan  Commonwealth  was  in  the  van.  It 
stood  there  :  indeed  it  was  the  van.*  " 

Again,  he  says: 

"  The  record,  opened  at  Plymouth  in  December, 
1620,  closed  as  a  distinct  and  independent  record 
in  April,  1865.  That  long  struggle  for  the  recogni 
tion  of  the  equality  of  man  before 'the  law,  of 
which  Massachusets  was  the  peculiar  and  ac 
knowledged  champion,  came  to  its  close  at  Appo- 
mattox."  f 

The  truth  is,  from  the  beginning  "caste"  was  in 
higher  favor  and  more  regarded  in  this  than  in 
any  of  the  Colonies,  except  possibly  in  Virginia. 
The  distinction  between  the  "better  class" — 
those  "  above  the  ordinary  degree" — and  those  of 
"mean  condition,"  was  expressly  pointed  out  and 
declared  by  the  General  Court  in  1651.  Under 
the  law  enacted  by  it,  regulating  the  kind  of  dress 
to  be  worn,  and  other  things,  magistrates,  civil 
and  military  officers,  persons  of  education  and  em 
ployment  "  above  the  ordinary  degree,"  those  who 
were  worth  two  hundred  pounds,  and  those  whose 
estates  had  been  considerable,  but  had  decayed, — 
all  those  in  a  word  called  the  better  class,  were 
*  Adams,  105.  t  Id.  107. 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.  203 

exempt  from  the  operation  of  these  sumptuary 
laws.  But  the  court  declared  most  earnestly, 
almost  pathetically,  its  "  utter  detestation  and  dis 
like  that  men  or  women  of  mean  condition,  educa 
tions  and  callings,  should  take  upon  them  the 
garbe  of  gentlemen,  hy  the  wearing  of  gold  or 
silver  lace,  or  buttons  or  poynts  at  their  knees,  to 
walke  in  great  bootes;  or  women  of  the  same 
ranke  to  weare  silk  or  tiffany  hoodes  or  scarfes, 
which,  though  allowable  to  persons  of  greater 
estates,  or  more  liberal  education,  yet  we  can  not 
but  judge  it  intolerable  in  persons  of  such  like 
condition."  * 

On  this  point  I  quote  Mr.  Adams,  who  says : 

"The  magistrates  talked  of  the  'common  peo 
ple,'  and  one  code  of  criminal  laws  applied  to  them, 
while  another  applied  to  the  gentry."  f 

This  was  the  way  Massachusetts,  in  1651,  "led 
the  van,  was  the  van,  indeed,"  in  its  war  against 
caste,  and  in  its  struggle  for  the  "  recognition  of 
the  equality  of  men  before  the  law." 

Another  author  says  on  this  point : 

"  The  New  England  Colonies  were  republics,  but 
not  democracies.  Most  of  them  had  state  churches ; 
their  suffrage,  though  broad,  was  restricted,  and 

*  Bryant's  Popular  History  United  States,  Vol.  II,  63. 
t  Adams,  9. 


204  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

among  their  people  social  distinctions  were  very 
marked.  When  these  Colonies  became  States  they 
clung,  with  true  English  tenacity,  to  their  old  tra 
ditions,  and  looked  with  horror  upon  the  leveling 
Democratic  theories  advanced  in  other  quarters."* 

Now  look  at  the  contrast  as  the  learned  author 
goes  right  on  to  say : 

"In  the  South,  on  the  other  hand,  with  its  large 
and  influential  Scotch-Irish  (Covenanter)  popula 
tion,  the  natural  tendency  was  to  get  as  far  as  pos 
sible  from  the  past.  Those  men  hated  England  as 
the  New  Englanders  never  did,  and  they  also  hated 
her  institutions.  Their  religion  had  taught  them 
the  absolute  equality  of  men,  and  on  this  point  they 
were  in  full  accord  with  men  like  Jefferson,  who 
had  learned  the  same  lesson  from  the  philosophers 
of  France."  f 

I  quote  again : 

"  Here,  then,  in  this  difference  of  race  we  may 
perhaps  find  an  explanation  of  the  fact  that  '  Vir 
ginia'  (under  the  lead  of  the  Covenanter,  Patrick 
Henry,  and  the  Hanover  Presbytery),  'formerly  the 
most  aristocratic,  became  the  most  democratic  of 
all  the  States;  while  Massachusetts,  standing  on 
old  conservative  ways,  became  the  chief  exponent 
of  the  opposing  theories.  One  thing  is  very  clear— 

*Cornpbell,  Vol.  II,  502.  t  Id.,  502. 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.          205 

from  no  English  element  of  the  population,  except 
the  Separatists'  (not  the  Puritans,  but  the  Pilgrims), 
'  would  have  come  the  ideas  of  human  equality,  free 
dom  of  religion,  separation  of  Church  and  State, 
and  universal  suffrage.'  "  * 

I  ask  the  reader  to  carefully  consider  the  three 
paragraphs  just  quoted  from  Campbell,  the  eulo 
gist  of  the  Puritans,  as  they  prove  all  I  have  said 
as  to  the  relative  merits  of  the  Puritans  and  the 
Covenanters.  They  also  disprove  the  extravagant 
claim  made  by  Mr.  Adams,  when  he  represents 
Massachusetts  as  sweeping  forward  triumphantly 
in  the  van  as  the  champion  of  human  equality  be 
fore  the  law,  from  1637  to  1865,  at  Appomattox. 

I  quote  again  from  Mr.  Adams  on  the  same 
point : 

"  When  the  Constitution  "  (of  Massachusetts)  "  of 
1780  was  framed,  it  yielded  a  grudging  and  reluc 
tant  consent  to  limited  concessions  of  non-conform 
ity,  but  it"  (religious  intolerance)  "  was  th-en  so  po 
tent  and  so  rife  that  the  trainer  of  the  instrument 
abandoned  in  despair  the  attempt  to  put  his  idea  of 
religious  freedom  in  any  form  of  words  likely  to  be 
acceptable  to  those  who  were  to  pass  upon  his 
work."f 

*  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  502. 

t  Adams,  97 ;  quoting  from  John  Adams. 


206  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

Thus,  while  the  constitutions  of  the  several 
States  were,  during  the  Revolution,  sweeping  away 
nearly  every  vestige  of  religious  intolerance,  Puri 
tan  Massachusetts  only  granted  partial  toleration. 
Not  until  1833  did  she  open  wide  her  doors  to  all 
sects  in  worship.  Thus,  according  to  Mr.  Adams, 
as  late  as  1780,  religious  intolerance  was  so  potent 
and  so  rife  that  the  framer  of  her  constitution 
(John  Adams)  "  abandoned  in  despair"  the  attempt 
to  make  religion  free. 

On  the  main  line  of  thought,  I  submit  one  more 
citation  : 

"  They  (the  Covenanters)  contributed  as  little 
which  \vas  original  to  American  institutions  as  did 
the  Puritans  of  New  England,  but  the}7  were  also 
willing  to  accept  new  ideas  from  other  quarters, 
and  they  contributed  elements  to  American  thoughts 
and  life  without  which  the  United  States  of  to  day 
would  be  impossible.  By  them  American  Inde 
pendence  was  first  openly  advocated,  and  but  for 
their  efforts,  seconding  those  of  the  New  England 
Puritans,  that  independence  would  not  have  been 
secured."  .  .  . 

"  They  were  the  Puritans  of  the  South — Calvin- 
ists  in  theology  and  republicans  in  politics.  Not 
only  did  they  contribute  largely  to  the  success  of 
the  He  volution,  but  it  was  mainly  through  their 


THE   COVENANTERS   AND   THE    PURITANS.  207 

influence  that  after  the  Revolution  republican  in 
stitutions,  unknown  in  England,  were  introduced 
into  the  South  and  West."  * 

Most  reluctantly  do  I  attempt  to  take  from  "  Pur 
itan  Massachusetts"  any  of  the  honors  she  so 
gracefully  and  so  complacently  wears,  won  in  the 
long  contest  over  the  abolition  of  slavery,  but  the 
truth  of  history  compels  my  doing  so.  That  State 
was  not  u  in  theVan ; "  much  less  "  was  she  the 
van  "  on  that  question  until  after  1836.  The  lead 
ing  men  of  Virginia  condemned  the  institution  of 
slavery  both  before  and  immediately  after  the  Rev 
olution.  In  1804  a  number  of  Baptist  ministers  in 
Kentucky  started  a  crusade  against  the  institution, 
which  resulted  in  a  hot  contest  in  the  denomina 
tion,  and  the  organization  of  the  "Baptist  Licking 
Locust  Association  Friends  of  Humanity."  j  In 
1806  Charles  Osborne  began  to  preach  "  immediate 
emancipation  "  in  Tennessee.  J  Ten  years  later  he 
started  a  paper  in  Ohio,  called  the  "  Philanthro 
pist,"  devoted  to  the  general  cause  of  humanity. 
In  1822  a  paper  was  started  at  Shelby  ville  (no  State 
mentioned,  probably  Kentucky),  called  the  "Abo 
lition  Intelligencer."  § 

*  Campbell,  Vol.  II,  471. 

tLife  of  Lincoln,  in  McClure's  Magazine,  Nov.,  1895,  507. 

t  W.  ?  Id. 


208  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

Osborne  probably  went  from  Jefferson  County, 
Eastern  Tennessee,  the  same  county  from  which 
John  Rankin,  the  noted  abolitionist,  went,  since 
his  was  the  first  name  on  the  roll  of  the  "  Lost 
Creek  Manumission  Society  "  of  that  county  in 
1815. 

Twenty  years  before^  Massachusetts  took  her 
stand  at  all  on  this  subject,  there  were  eighteen 
manumission,  or  emancipation,  societies  in  Eastern 
Tennessee,  organized  by  the  Covenanters,  the 
Methodists,  and  the  Quakers  of  that  region,  which 
held  regular  meetings  for  a  number  of  years  in  the 
interest  of  emancipation  or  abolitionism.*  In  1822 
there  were  five  or  six  abolition  societies  in  Ken 
tucky.  In  1819  the  first  distinctively  emancipation 
paper  in  the  United  States  was  published  in  Jones- 
borough,  Eastern  Tennessee,  by  Elihu  Embree,  a 
Quaker,  called  the  "  Manumission  Intelligencer." 
In  1821  Benjamin  Lundy  purchased  this  paper,  and 
published  it  for  two  years  in  Greenville,  East  Ten 
nessee,  under  the  title  of  the  "  Genius  of  Universal 
Emancipation."  f  Lundy  was  merely  the  successor 
of  Embree.  At  and  previous  to  this  time,  the 
Methodist  Church  in  Tennessee,  at  its  conferences, 

*  History  of  Tennessee,  by  Goodspeed  Publishing  Co.,  East 
Tennessee  Edition,  882. 

tSee  Autobiography  of  Benjamin  Lundy,  Hist.  Tennessee 
(Goodspeed). 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.          209 

was  making  it  hot  for  its  members,  who  held,  or 
who  bought  or  sold  slaves,  by  silencing  or  expell 
ing  them.  * 

On  the  other  hand,  as  late  as  1835,  William 
Lloyd  Garrison  was  mobbed  in  the  streets  of 
Boston,  because  he  was  an  abolitionist.  About 
1827,  Benjamin  Lundy  could  not  find  an  aboli 
tionist  in  that  city.  In  1826,  of  the  one  hundred 
and  forty-three  emancipation  societies  in  the 
United  States,  one  hundred  and  three  were  in  the 
South,  and  not  one,  so  far  as  I  know,  in  Massa 
chusetts. f  John  Rankin,  the  noted  abolitionist 
of  Ohio,  who  went  from  East  Tennessee  in  1815, 
or  1816 — a  Covenanter  and  from  a  Covenanter 
neighborhood — declared  in  the  latter  part  of  his 
life  that  it  was  safer  in  1816  to  1820  to  make 
abolition  speeches  in  Tennessee  or  Kentucky  than 
it  was  in  the  North. 

In  1835,  the  poet  Whittier,  and  George  Thomp 
son,  the  celebrated  English  abolitionist,  were 
mobbed  and  narrowly  escaped  with  their  lives,  in 
attempting  to  make  abolition  speeches  in  one  of 
the  towns  of  Massachusetts. 


*  History  of  Methodism  in  Tennessee,  by  John  B.  McFerrin, 
D.D. 

t  Autobiography  of  Benjamin  .Lundy ;  Wilson's  Rise,etc., 
1, 179. 


210  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

In  1833,  Governor  Everett,  of  Massachusetts, 
suggested  the  expediency  of  prosecuting  aboli 
tionists.*  Mr.  Garrison  said,  in  the  first  number 
of  the  Liberator,  that  he  found  in  the  North,  "  con 
tempt  more  bitter,  prejudice  more  stubborn,  and 
apathy  more  frozen  than  among  slave  owners 
themselves."  f  It  was  estimated,  in  1828,  that  in 
Tennessee  three-fifths  of  the  people  were  favor 
ably  disposed  toward  the  principle  of  emancipa 
tion.  J 

In  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  Tennessee, 
in  1834,  a  proposition  was  made  to  emancipate 
the  slaves  of  the  State,  and  it  received  over  one- 
third  of  the  votes  of  the  members,  and  the  favor 
able  indorsement  of  all,  those  opposing  it,  approv 
ing  the  principle,  but  insisting  that  the  time  for 
that  step  had  not  yet  arrived.  || 

It  is  well  known  that  Henry  Clay  commenced 
his  political  career  in  Kentucky  by  an  effort  to 
secure  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  of  that 
State.  The  fact  is,  the  emancipation  movement 
seems  to  have  gotten  its  first  start  and  strength 


*  Life  of  Lundy,  286. 

t  Centennial  Address  of  Hon.  J.   M.  Dickinson,  Nashville, 
1896. 

t  Id.,  quoting  Life  of  Birney,  79. 
II  Journal  of  Convention. 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.  211 

in  Virginia,  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  though  the 
Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  made  feeble  efforts  in 
that  direction  before  the  Revolution. 

It  thus  appears  that  Massachusetts  was  a  long 
ways  behind  even  some  of  the  slave  states  in  the 
struggle  for  "  man's  equality  before  the  law."  It 
was  not  until  1836  that  she  led  in  the  abolition 
movement. 


212  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS — CONTINUED. 

Noble  traits  of  the  Puritans — Their  liberality  and  public 
spirit — Puritans  and  Covenanters  contrasted — The  Puritans 
a  commercial  people— Kept  in  a  compact  body — The  Cove 
nanters  separated  and  scattered— Forced  into  interior — 
Covenanters  build  up  a  high  civilization  in  the  South — 
Their  influence  extends  to  North-western  States — Were  an 
agricultural  people — No  stimulus  to  authorship — Politics 
the  highway  to  honor— Free  thought  and  speculation  in 
New  England — Caste  and  social  distinctions  in  Massachu 
setts—Puritans  and  Covenanters  in  the  Revolution — The 
blood  of  the  latter  in  the  South — Their  liberal  ideas  and 
influence  in  molding  the  thought  and  institutions  of  the 
South. 

I  now  turn  with  pleasure  to  the  more  lovable  and 
charming  features  in  the  character  of  "  Puritan 
Massachusetts."  In  many  respects  she  has  a  rec 
ord  of  which  every  American  citizen  ought  to  be 
proud.  In  her  educational  system  she  stands  pre 
eminent.  In  great  scholars  and  writers  she  enjoys 
an  "  easy  supremacy  ''*  over  her  sister  States.  In 
manufactures  arid  in  all  the  industrial  arts  she  has 
led  in  the  wonderful  development  made  in  these 
directions  in  the  last  half  century  by  our  marvelous 
people.  In  all  things  material  that  minister  to  the 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.          213 

comfort,  the  convenience,  or  the  happiness  of  man 
kind,  in  their  homes,  no  people  on  earth  excel  the 
Puritans  of  New  England.  They  are  nowhere 
surpassed  in  thrift,  ingenuity,  energy,  or  enter 
prise.  Their  vast  accumulations  of  wealth  and 
their  stupendous  adventures  and  enterprises  prove 
the  truth  of  this  statement. 

The  charitable  institutions  of  the  Puritans  are 
magnificent  monuments  of  their  liberality  and  pub 
lic  spirit,  showing  an  enlightened  sympathy  with 
struggling  humanity.  While  close,  exact,  and  cal 
culating  in  their  dealings,  and  careful  in  their  ex 
penditures,  they  are  capable  of  the  most  noble  lib 
erality.  Their  charities,  when  the  objects  are 
worthy,  are  as  boundless  as  their  sympathy  with 
want.  Who  can  forget  how  nobly,  how  enthusi 
astically,  how  munificently  all  New  England,  and 
especially  Boston,  under  the  lead  of  the  noble  Ed 
ward  Everett,  responded  in  1864  to  the  cry  for  help 
which  reached  them  from  the  starving,  people  of 
East  Tennessee  after  that  region  had  been  eaten 
as  bare  as  a  desert  by  four  large  armies.  All  classes, 
even  the  children,  vied  with  each  other  in  their 
noble  emulation  in  giving.  They  poured  out  their 
money  for  the  relief  of  the  destitute,  as  freely  as  if 
it  had  been  water.  If  the  climate  of  the  Puritan  is 
cold  and  icy  and  dreary,  his  heart,  when  touched 


214  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

with  sympathy  or  a  sense  of  duty,  warms  and  glows 
in  the  presence  of  suffering  as  if  filled  by  tropical 
heat. 

In  private  life  the  Puritans  have  always  been  re 
garded  as  exemplary  and  upright,  and  in  morals 
pure.  In  these  respects  the  Covenanters  were 
equally  as  much  so.  The  Puritans  were  an  in 
dustrious  and  frugal  race  ;  and  so  also  were  the 
Covenanters.  The  wilderness  and  wild  savage  foes 
had  no  terrors  for  the  Puritans;  equally  as  little 
had  they  for  the  brave  and  hardy  Covenanters.  If 
the  Puritans  carne  to  the  New  World  to  plant  there 
a  pure  religion,  so  also  did  the  Covenanters.  If  the 
former  was  too  manly  to  endure  persecution,  so 
also  was  the  latter.  If  the  one  braved  the  perils  of 
the  sea  and  the  hardships  of  the  dreary  wilderness 
for  the  sake  of  conscience  and  religion,  the  other 
did  the  same  thing.  There  was  no  sacrifice  made, 
no  danger  met,  no  heroic  fortitude  displayed,  no 
sublime  purpose  manifested  by  the  one,  that  was 
not  as  heroically  made,  met,  and  displayed  by  the 
other.  If  the  conditions  and  the  environments  of 
the  Puritans  and  the  Covenanters  had  been  re 
versed,  it  is  almost  certain  that,  in  education,  in 
the  accumulation  of  wealth,  in  literary  culture,  and 
in  general  development,  so  grand  and  so  successful 
in  Massachusetts,  the  Covenanters  would  to-day 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.  215 

hold  the  place  now  so  proudly  occupied  by  the 
Puritans.  The  two  were  not  very  unequal  in  any 
respect.  Certainly  the  Covenanter  was  not  the  in 
ferior  of  the  Puritan  in  any  element  tending  to  the 
making  of  a  great  State  or  a  great  people. 

Consider  this  matter  for  a  moment.  The  Puri 
tan,  with  equal  advantages,  had  the  start  in  a  new 
country  by  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years. 
He  had  a  state  all  his  own,  and  could  form  it  as  he 
pleased.  The  Puritan  looked  out  on  the  ocean, 
which  invited  him  to  engage  in  trade  and  com 
merce.  He  built  ships  and  ventured  on  its  waters, 
and  became  a  common  carrier.  He  went  abroad 
in  search  of  trade  among  the  nations,  thus  keeping 
up  with  the  march  of  the  world.  He  had  the  coast 
trade  and  the  fisheries.  He  made  gain  and  became 
rich.  The  people  kept  close  together  in  compact 
settlements.  The  township  system  of  local  self- 
government,  to  which  New  England  owes  so  much 
of  its  importance,  secured  concentration  of  money, 
energy,  and  purpose  in  any  given  direction.  It 
made  possible  universal  education.  The  town 
meetings  stimulated  free  thought  and  inquiry.  By 
them  the  inhabitants  became  a  live,  an  alert  peo 
ple.  In  them  they  learned  to  argue,  to  debate,  to 
question  things,  to  govern.  They  started  schools 
and  made  education  universal. 


216 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Covenanter,  coming  late, 
and  after  the  whole  coast,  from  Massachusetts  to 
Georgia,  had  been  occupied  by  prior  settlers,  was 
forced  into  the  interior  in  all  the  Colonies.  In 
New  York,  in  Pennsylvania,  in  North  and  South 
Carolina,  and  in  Georgia  this  was  the  case.  There 
was  no  room  for  him  to  found  a  new  State  on  the 
Atlantic  coast.  As  a  people,  the  Covenanters  be 
came  scattered  from  the  Kennebec  to  the  Savan 
nah.  In  Pennsylvania  they  were  forced  to  the 
frontier.  Finally  driven  across  the  mountains,  they 
scattered  over  the  western  part  of  the  State.  In 
Virginia,  following  the  frontier,  they  settled  along 
the  foot  of  the  mountains.  Crossing  these  they 
entered  what  is  now  West  Virginia.  Then  in  one 
line  they  passed  on  into  Kentucky,  and  by  another 
they  went  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  spread 
over  South-western  Virginia,  and  down  into  what 
is  now  East  Tennessee.  In  North  and  South  Car 
olina  the  same  process  of  finding  homes  in  the  in 
terior  took  place.  Finally,  scaling  the  Blue  Ridge, 
they  came  to  the  wilderness  on  the  Watauga  and 
the  Holston.  A  part  continued  on  three  hundred 
miles  further,  through  the  pathless  forests,  to  the 
Cumberland,  where  they  founded  Nashville  and 
scattered  over  Middle  Tennessee. 

Thus  the  process  of  scattering,  of  separation,  of 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.          217 

isolation,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  took  place 
nearly  every-where.  They  had  no  ocean,  no  com 
merce,  no  fisheries,  no  intercourse  with  the  outside 
world.  They  had  no  trade,  except  with  near  neigh 
borhoods;  no  great  navigable  rivers  on  which  to 
float  their  products;  no  markets  ;  no  great  or  even 
small  cities,  and  no  means  of  growing  rich.  They 
had  the  absolute  control  of  no  State,  though  with 
a  large  influence  in  a  number  of  them,  until  Ten 
nessee  and  Kentucky  came  into  the  Union.  Under 
such  conditions  a  thorough  and  universal  system 
of  education  was  impossible.  The  settlements 
were  for  a  long  time  too  sparse,  and  the  people  in 
too  moderate  circumstances  for  such  an  accom 
plishment.  And  yet,  as  we  have  seen,  colleges 
and  grammar  schools  every-where  came  into  being. 
Education  was  kept  alive,  with  a  high  standard  of 
scholarship.  Most  persons  of  moderate  means  be 
came  educated. 

While  the  Covenanters  with  pack-horses  were 
toiling  up  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Blue  Ridge, 
on  their  way  to  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  rich 
argosies,  laden  with  the  products  of  the  Indies, 
were  sailing  home  to  Boston  to  make  glad  the 
hearts  of  her  merchant  princes.  At  the  time  the 
Covenanters  were  building  their  rude  log-huts  on 
18 


218  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

the  frontiers,  rows  of  stately  buildings  lined  the 
streets  of  Boston,  Newburyport  and  Providence. 
While  the  Covenanters  in  primitive  wagons  were 
slowly  struggling  through  mud  on  their  way  to 
the  nearest  little  village  market,  to  barter  and  ex 
change  their  domestic  products,  proud  ships,  laden 
with  sperm  and  fish,  grain  and  rum,  were  sailing 
out  of  the  harbors  of  New  England,  on  their  way 
to  the  great  marts  of  the  world. 

And  yet,  w^ith  all  these  disadvantages,  the  Cove 
nanters  in  all  the  States  south  of  New  York,  have 
gone  on,  quietly,  modestly,  and  intelligently, 
building  up  a  Christian  civilization  as  perfect  and 
as  splendid  in  every  respect  as  that  of  New  En 
gland,  and  in  some  respects  much  more  so.  This 
work  has  not  been  confined  to  the  old  States.  It 
has  extended  to  the  new  States  in  the  South-west 
and  in  the  West.  The  influence  of  this  race  on 
the  institutions,  the  thought  and  morals  of  these 
States,  especially  that  of  the  more  southerly  ones, 
has  been  quite  as  far-reaching  as  that  of  the 
Puritans.  The  great  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Il 
linois,  Iowa,  Missouri  and  Texas,  as  well  as  Cali 
fornia  and  Oregon,  are  largely  the  product  of  the 
brain,  the  energy,  the  enterprise  and  the  capital  of 
the  Covenanters  of  the  old  Middle  States,  and  of 
those  south  of  them.  This  is  notably  the  case  as 


THE    COVENANTERS   AND    THE    PURITANS.  219 

to  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Missouri  and  Texas. 
In  an  able  address  delivered  at  Harrisburg,  before 
the  Scotch-Irish  Congress,  in  1896,  Mr.  William 
Henry  Egle,  M.D.,  spoke  as  follows  on  this  sub 
ject  : 

"It  was  the  same  race  of  people-."  (the  Scotch- 
Irish  or  Covenanters)  "  who,  when  peace  came  and 
independence  was  acknowledged,  formed  the  ad 
vance  guard  of  civilization.  The  winning  of  the 
West  was  due  more  to  the  Scotch-Irish,  the  land 
marks  of  whose  early  settlement  have  been  brought 
before  you,  than  to  any  other  race  or  class  of  men."  * 

I  do  not  fail  to  recognize  the  share  the  Puritans 
have  had  in  some  of  these  States  in  this  great 
work,  but  I  utterly  deny  the  justice  of  the  claim 
usually  made  for  them  and  by  them.  Nor  do  I 
refuse  to  the  Cavaliers,  the  Germans,  the  original 
English,  and  perhaps  other  races,  the  honor  of  a 
hand  in  building  up  these  States. 

The  legislature  of  Illinois  of  1834,  consisting  of 
eighty-one  members,  was  composed  nearly  entirely 
of  "  men  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  or  Virginia 
origin,  writh  here  and  there  a  Frenchmen."  f  The 
States  of  Indiana,  Illinois  and  Missouri  were 


*  Proceedings  of  Scotch-Irish  Congress,  Vol.  VIII,  81. 
t  McClure's  Magazine,  for  February,  1896,  234. 


220  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

largely  settled  by  the  people  of  the  States  above 
named. 

The  reasons  are  obvious  on  a  little  reflection, 
why  the  Covenanters  of  the  South  have  not  built 
up  a  splendid  literature,  such  as  the  Puritans  boast 
of.  They  were  at  first,  from  the  very  necessities 
of  their  surroundings,  an  agricultural  and  a  plant 
ing  people.  Commerce  was  impossible.  There 
was  no  motive  for  settling  in  cities,  and  nothing 
indeed  to  build  up  cities.  Country  life  became  the 
fashion,  as  well  as  a  necessity.  Except  the  few 
who  entered  the  learned  professions,  educated  men 
sought  a  life  in  the  retirement  of  a  farm  or  a  plan 
tation.  There,  the  stimulus,  the  hot  excitement 
of  emulation,  existing  in  a  literary  atmosphere 
was  entirely  absent.  There  could  be,  and  there 
was  no  contact  of  mind  with  mind,  thought  with 
thought.  The  enkindling  influence  of  one  mind, 
fired  with  a  high  inspiration,  a  divine  afflatus  overa 
kindred  mind  was  entirely  wanting.  No  hints,  no 
vague  suggestions,  no  gleams  of  great  thoughts 
were  caught  from  others  and  molded  into  fiction, 
or  poetry,  or  history.  Many  a  person  of  real 
power  and  genius  has  slept  away  his  life,  in  vain, 
because  he  had  not  the  contagion  of  fellowship,  of 
contact,  of  emulation  to  kindle  his  own  mind  into 
a  flame,  No  great  literary  center,  such  as  Boston, 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.  221 

attracted  authors  to  it,  to  draw  from  each  other 
inspiration — where  minds  were  quickened  and 
intensified  by  contact  with  other  minds.  Author 
ship  was  not  the  fashion  in  the  South,  and  did 
not  become  a  profession.  At  an  early  day  politics 
became  the  highway  to  honor  and  power.  This 
field  seemed  to  suit  the  bent  of  the  fiery,  the 
impulsive,  the  enthusiastic  Southern  gentlemen. 
Here  high  ambition  found  its  vent,  and  the  fulfill 
ment  of  its  aspirations.  Into  that  flattering,  se 
ductive  field,  ambitious  young  men  eagerly  entered 
as  the  way  to  honor.  The  impetuosity  and  the 
ardent  spirit  of  Southern  genius  naturally  led  in 
that  direction.  There  have  been  at  all  times 
talents  of  the  highest  order  in  the  South.  In 

O 

statesmanship,  in  oratory,  at  the  bar,  on  the  bench, 
in  the  pulpit,  in  medicine  and  in  war,  this  fact  has 
been  constantly  and  most  signally  illustrated  for 
more  than  a  hundred  years.  In  these  respects  the 
South  can  proudly  challenge  a  comparison  with 
any  other  region  of  our  country.  Authorship  re 
quires  leisure,  repose,  libraries  and  freedom  from 
care.  Above  all  it  needs  fellowship,  stimulation, 
emulation  and  a  literary  atmosphere.  The  South 
ern  people  had  leisure  and  repose  on  their  great 
plantations,  but  riot  the  other  requisites.  They 
had  no  literary  center,  no  literary  circles,  no  incite- 


222  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

ment  to  authorship.  They  had  no  group  of  literary 
men,  like  Emerson,  Bryant,  Whittier,  Longfellow, 
Holmes,  Lowell,  Bancroft,  Prescott,  Motley,  Haw 
thorne,  and  Thoreau  to  inspire  them  with  a  noble 
emulation. 

I  have  referred  to  the  fact  that  the  preachers  of 
the  Covenanter  faith  in  the  South  (and  it  is  true 
of  nearly  all  other  sects  also)  have  always  been  and 
still  are  conservative  in  all  their  religious  opinions, 
never  having  abandoned  the  creed  of  their  fathers 
in  an}''  of  its  essentials.  How  different  in  Puritan 
Massachusetts.  That  State — indeed,  all  New  En 
gland  is  more  or  less  so — has  become  a  hot-bed  in 
which  every  religious  opinion,  every  wild  theory, 
every  vague  speculation,  every  shade  of  belief, 
hanging  on  the  "  ragged  edge"  of  disbelief,  finds 
a  congenial  soil  in  which  to  germinate,  take  root, 
blossom,  and  bear  fruit.  Like  a  huge  pendulum, 
religious  opinion  has  swung  from  one  extreme  to 
the  opposite — from  the  rigid  and  somber  ortho 
doxy  of  Jonathan  Edwards  to  the  liberalism  of 
William  Ellery  Channing — from  the  strictest  Cal 
vinism,  with  good  works  and  faith  in  Christ  as  the 
corner  stone,  to  the  doctrine  of  "  the  efficacy  of  good 
works  and  moral  living"  without  Christ.  This, 
however,  is  only  one  of  the  developments  of  free- 
thinking — the  supremacy  of  reason.  Every  form 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.  223 

of  unbelief  seems  to  be  creeping  into  the  religion, 
the  thought,  and  the  lives  of  that  people.  The 
work  of  destroying  the  monuments  of  the  past  has 
gone  forward  fearfully  fast.  It  is  well  that  some 
of  them  should  be  pulled  down,  but  let  those  that 
are  valuable  be  respected  arid  spared. 

From  the  very  beginning,  as  we  have  seen,  there 
has  always  been  a  tendency  toward  caste  in  Massa 
chusetts.  Her  people  were  Englishmen.  They  had 
English  ideas.  Ideas  of  caste  were  a  part  of  their 
heritage.  I  have  already  quoted  one  of  their  early 
statutes  showing  that  a  clear  distinction  was  drawn 
between  the  "  better  class/''  those  "  above  the  ordi 
nary  degree,  "and  those  of  "  mean  condition."  Those 
of  the  latter  class  were  not  to  wear  the  same  cloth 
ing  that  the  former  did.  Douglas  Campbell  points 
out,  as  we  have  seen,  the  fact  that  in  Ne\\  England 
"  social  distinctions  were  very  marked,"  and  that 
"  when  these  Colonies  became  States,  they  clung, 
with  true  English  tenacity,  to  their  old  traditions, 
and  looked  with  horror  upon  the  leveling  demo 
cratic  theories  advanced  in  other  quarters." 

I  refer  to  one  more  fact  on  this  subject.  '  In  the 
discussion  over  the  formation  of  the  Federal  Con 
stitution,  and  during  the  twelve  years  following  its 
adoption,  the  Federal  and  the  anti-Federal  parties 
were  formed  and  came  into  being;  the  one,  thor- 


224  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

o uglily  democratic,  was  led  by  Mr.  Jefferson  ;  the 
other,  led  by  Mr.  Hamilton  and  John  Adams, 
leaned  toward  a  strong  central  government.  Mas 
sachusetts  and  New  England,  following  the  lead  of 
Mr.  Adams,  ranged  themselves  on  the  Federal  side, 
while  the  Southern  States  followed  the  leadership 
of  Mr.  Jefferson.  Massachusetts  became  a  Federal 
State,  while  Virginia  became  thoroughly  demo 
cratic. 

In  the  great  Revolutionary  struggle,  both  in  the 
advocacy  of  resistance  and  separation,  and  in  fight 
ing  its  battles  afterward,  the  Puritans  performed 
a  glorious  part.  No  one  would  take  from  them 
any  of  the  honor  they  so  npbly  won  in  that  time  of 
trial.  But  the  Covenanters  were  equally  as  patri 
otic  and  as  ardent  in  the  cause  of  independence, 
and  as  brave  in  battle.  In  the  progress  of  the  war 
the  Puritans  and  the  Covenanters  (as  well  as  many 
of  the  Cavaliers)  stood  manfully  and  bravely,  side 
by  side,  through  the  long  struggle,  without  wav 
ering  or  dishonor  anywhere,  until  independence 
was  won.  And  though  history  has  hitherto  given 
to  the  Covenanters  no  distinct  place,  as  a  people, 
in  that  great  contest,  it  must  be  that  some  future 
historian,  with  more  ample  material,  will  give 
them  the  high  position  they  should  occupy  before 
the  world. 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.          225 

Now,  in  conclusion,  what  has  become  of  the  five 
or  six  hundred  thousand  (or,  if  that  is  too  many, 
of  the  four  or  five  hundred  thousand)  Covenanters 
in  blood  who  were  in  the  Southern  States  at  the 
date  of  the  Revolution?  Have  they  disappeared 
and  been  lost  by  the  overshadowing  influence  of 
some  greater  race  ?  What  race  ?  Has  this  strong, 
brainy,  self-assertive — this  great  intellectual  stock 
that  has  made  itself  felt  wherever  it  has  gone  in 
any  part  of  the  world — has  it  silently  disappeared 
and  melted  away  in  the  South  by  contact  with 
other  and  superior  races  ?  By  no  means.  The 
blood  and  the  splendid  elements  which  formed  the 
character  and  the  life  of  the  old  Covenanters  in 
their  native  land  are  still  as  potent  as  in  the  days 
of  the  Revolution.  From  generation  to  generation 
they  still  reappear,  in  as  distinct  outline  as  in  the 
days  of  the  absolute  purity  of  its  blood  in  the  hills 
of  Scotland.  From  generation  to  generation  the 
manly  forms,  the  great  qualities,  and  the  splen 
did  endowments  of  the  Prestons,  the  Henrys,  the 
Randolphs,  the  Breckenridges,  the  Campbells,  the 
Alexanders,  the  Witherspoons,  the  Blairs,  the  Jack- 
sons,  the  Polks,  the  Grahams,  the  Doaks  reappear 
in  their  descendants.  Sometimes  they  appear 
among  the  Methodists;  sometimes  the  Baptists; 
19 


226     COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

sometimes  the  Episcopalians,  and  sometimes  among 
the  Presbyterians.  The  Covenanters  no  longer  ex 
ist  as  a  distinct  sect.  The  term  "  Presbyterian  " 
no  longer  signifies  a  "  Covenanter."  The  old 
Covenant  no  longer  binds  and  holds  them  together. 
They  are  scattered,  and  have  mixed  with  other 
races,  but  their  splendid  blood  still  pours  its  rich 
current  through  the  veins  of  the  Southern  and 
many  of  the  Western  people.  And  so  long  as  the 
nation  shall  last,  the  blood  of  this  wonderful  stock 
•will  exist,  and  make  itself  felt  among  men. 

As  the  logical  conclusion  of  the  discussions  in 
the  last  four  chapters,  and  the  underlying  thought 
running  through  them  all,  it  is  affirmed  as  almost  an 
undeniable  proposition  that  the  advanced  theories 
and  the  liberal  ideas,  in  reference  to  both  political 
and  religious  liberty,  which,  like  threads  of  gold, 
were  woven  into  the  institutions  of  the  country 
and  the  life  of  the  people,  and  which  gave  them 
their  chief  glory,  were  of  Covenanter,  and  not 
of  Puritan  or  Cavalier,  origin.  This  is  so  mani 
festly  true  as  to  religious  liberty  that  the  reader 
has  only  to  recall  the  facts  already  given  in  order 
to  command  his  ready  assent  to  the  truth  of  the 
proposition.  For  it  will  be  remembered  that, 
until  after  the  coming  of  the  Covenanters,  there 
was  not  one  gleam  of  light  in  all  the  dreary 


THE   COVENANTERS   AND   THE    PURITANS.          227 

regions  dominated  by  the  Puritans  and  the  Cava 
liers.  The  despotism  and  the  gloorn  of  intolerance 
reigned  supreme.  A  narrow  bigotry  and  super 
stition  cast  their  blighting  shadows  over  the  minds 
of  men.  Notwithstanding  the  bold  and  never- 
ceasing  teachings  of -the  Covenanters,  from  the 
day  of  their  arrival  in  the  countr}7  until  they  had 
aroused  the  storm  of  the  Revolution,  so  difficult 
was  it  to  induce  the  Puritans  and  the  Cavaliers  to 
relax  their  deadly  grasp  on  the  consciences  of 
men,  that  eleven  years  passed  away  after  the  in 
auguration  of  hostilities  in  the  Colonies  before 
universal  religious  liberty  prevailed  in  the  Cava 
lier  State,  and  nearly  sixty  years  before  complete 
religious  emancipation  was  accomplished  in  Mas 
sachusetts. 

The  struggles  for  political  and  personal  liberty 
are  always  easily  remembered.  The  glare  and 
the  thunders  of  war  are  never  forgotten.  But 
the  quiet,  the  persistent  and  the  courageous  war 
fare  waged  by  the  Covenanters,  every- where  and 
at  all  times,  for  the  right  of  conscience,  while  it 
was  effecting  a  revolution  as  important  for  the 
happiness  of  mankind  as  the  great  one  settled  by 
arms,  did  not  appeal  to  the  senses  and  the  imagi 
nation  of  men,  and  hence  it  has  been  but  little 
noted  by  speakers  or  by  historians. 


228  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

To  prove  the  correctness  of  the  other  branch  of 
my  summary,  or  proposition,  in  reference  to  poli 
tical  freedom,  it  is  only  necessary  to  refer  to  the 
facts  already  given,  to  show  the  deeply-rooted 
ideas  of  caste  and  social  distinction  existing  in  the 
minds  of  the  ruling  classes,  and  in  the  society 
of  Virginia  and  Massachusetts,  previous  to  and 
at  the  date  of  the  Revolution.  These -caste  ideas 
and  social  distinctions  did  not  prevent  those  favor 
able  to  Independence  from  doing  their  duty  in  the 
great  contest  of  arms,  but  they  did  have  a  most 
important  influence  in  shaping  the  institutions  of 
the  country,  and  in  giving  tone  and  coloring  to  its 
thought  afterward.  And  in  this  second  stage  of 
the  Revolution  these  Covenanters,  dwelling  in 
large  numbers  in  all  the  States  south  of  New 
England,  with  their  liberal  and  advanced  ideas, 
learned  in  their  bitter  experience  of  nearly  two 
centuries,  and  with  their  creed  of  Republicanism, 
were  ready  to  infuse  their  spirit  and  inject  their 
ideas  of  equality  into  the  constitutions,  the  insti 
tutions,  and  into  the  life  of  that  vast  region. 
Under  this  influence  even  aristocratic  Cavalier 
Virginia  became,  as  we  have  seen,  the  most 
democratic  of  all  the  States.  Under  this  influence, 
also,  the  Constitution  of  Tennessee  was  framed, 
which  was  pronounced  by  Mr.  Jefferson  the  most 


THE    COVENANTERS    AND    THE    PURITANS.  229 

republican  in  its  spirit  of  all  the  American  consti 
tutions.  And  this  same  spirit  pervaded  the  insti 
tutions  of  all  the  Southern  States,  excepting  South 
Carolina.  I  do  not  withhold  from  Mr.  Jefferson 
the  high  meed  of  praise  he  so  richly  merits,  for 
his  magnificent  work  in  behalf  of  liberal  ideas  and 
republican  institutions  in  Virginia.  But  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  always  a  Covenanter  in  his  opinions 
as  to  political  and  religious  liberty.  Besides  this, 
we  have  seen  that  he  would  have  failed  in  his 
great  reforms,  except  for  the  powerful  aid  he  re 
ceived  from  the  Covenanters. 

Nor  do  I  ignore  the  teachings  of  Roger  Will 
iams,  nor  the  liberal  ideas  of  the  Dutch  of  New 
York,  nor  the  conservative  opinions  of  the 
Quakers,  nor  the  tolerant  spirit  of  the  Catholics 
of  Maryland,  in  accomplishing  these  great/results, 
but  these  were  insignificant  in  their  influence  in 
comparison  with  the  widely  extended  power  of 
the  great  Covenanter  race. 


230  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PRESBYTERIANS     AND      OTHER     DENOMINATIONS    IN    THE 
SOUTH. 

The  terras  Covenanter,  Presbyterian  and  Scotch-Irish — Coven 
anter  blood  in  all  churches— Presbyterians  in  the  South — 
Have  lost  ground— Pioneer  Methodists  and  Baptists — 
Methodists  in  1770,  in  1818  and  1890— Wonderful  growth- 
Itinerant  system — Remarkable  growth  oflBaptist  Church- 
Its  record  in  behalf  of  political  and  religious  liberty — 
Roger  Williams— Numbers  of  the  leading  denominations 
given — Educational  standard  in  leading  churches — Use 
fulness  of  Christian  Ministry — Civilizing  influence  of  re 
ligion — Honor  to  the  memory  of  Luther,  Calvin,  Knox, 
Roger  Williams— Influence  of  Calvinism  on  the  destiny  of 
the  world — Authorities  quoted — Mission  of  Presbyterian- 
ism — Presbyterians  in  the  South. 

It  has  been  very  far  from  my  intention  to  in 
dulge  in  a  sectarian  spirit  in  any  discussions  in 
these  chapters.  And  yet  it  is  very  difficult  to 
write  the  history  of  the  Covenanters,  and  espec 
ially  to  do  them  justice,  without  the  appearance 
of  sectarianism.  Up  to  a  period  near  the  begin 
ning  of  the  Revolution,  the  Covenanters  and  the 
Scotch,  and  the  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians,  were 
so  nearly  identical,  that  to  speak  of  the  one  was  to 
refer  to  the  other  also.  But  in  the  course  of  time, 
and  especially  after  the  Revolution,  by  reason  of 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  OTHER  DENOMINATIONS.   231 

intermarriages  with  other  sects,  the  two  terms 
ceased  to  mean  the  same  thing.  To-day  they  are 
by  no  means  identical.  These  intermarriages  be 
tween  the  Covenanters,  or  the  Scotch-Irish  Presby 
terians,  and  other  Christian  denominations,  have 
been  so  frequent  that  the  term  Covenanter  may,  or 
it  may  not,  at  this  day  signify  a  Presbyterian. 
The  Covenanter  in  blood  may  be  a  Methodist,  a 
Baptist,  an  Episcopalian,  even  a  Roman  Catholic, 
or  a  member  of  any  other  denomination.  Nor 
does  the  term  Presbyterian  necessarity  mean  a 
Covenanter  in  blood.  The  members  of  the  dif 
ferent  branches  of  the  universal  church  in  this  land, 
have  so  intermingled  in  marriage  and  blood,  and 
so  many  have  changed  church  relations,  that  no 
racial  term  will  correctly  distinguish  them.  The 
term  Covenanter  now  simply  means  a  distinct  peo 
ple  and  not  a  sect.  Covenanter  blood  is  plentifully 
diffused  through  all  churches  and  sects,  and  all 
sects  should  be  proud  of  the  great  deeds  and  the 
splendid  history  of  that  people. 

There  is  not  perhaps  a  Protestant  Church  in  the 
South  to-day  without  more  or  less  Covenanter 
blood  among  its  members.  Take  away  all  persons 
of  Covenanter  blood,  especially  in  the  mountain 
country  of  Kentucky,  Virginia,  West  Virginia, 
Tennessee,  Georgia  and  North  Carolinia,  where  so 


232  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

many  of  this  stock  originally  settled,  and  in  many 
cases  the  congregation  would  be  nearly  or  quite 
broken  up.  This  is  as  true  of  the  Methodist  and  the 
Baptist  congregations  as  of  the  Presbyterian.  In 
some  counties  in  this  region  settled  by  Covenan 
ters,  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  entirely  disap 
peared,  while  the  names  of  the  people  as  unmis 
takably  indicate  the  Scotch  origin  of  a  majority  of 
them  as  would  a  district  in  Ulster.  In  all  this 
large  region,  to  which  I  have  just  referred,  per 
haps  five-sixths  of  the  Covenanters  in  blood  are 
either  Methodists  or  Baptists.  Intermarriages 
have  obliterated  the  original  religious  race  distinc 
tions. 

Both  the  Methodist  and  the  Baptist  Churches, 
and  indeed  all  other  churches  in  the  Southern 
States,  are  full  of  members  of  Covenanter  descent, 
Many  of  the  men  in  the  Methodist  Church  who 
have  been  distinguished  for  piety  arid  ability,  and 
who  have  shed  luster  on  that  denomination,  are 
known  by  their  very  names  to  have  descended 
from  Covenanter  stock.  I  need  only  mention 
Bishop  McKendree  and  Bishop  McTyre,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  McAnally  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  McFerrin,  all  well 
known  in  the  South-west. 

The  Presbyterians  have  relatively  lost  ground 
in  the  South,  especially  in  the  mountain   region 


PRESBYTERIANS    AND    OTHER    DENOMINATIONS.    233 

thereof,  during  the  last  eighty  years.  -They  were 
for  the  most  part  the  first  settlers  in  that  region. 
They  occupied  the  new  towns  as  they  were  built 
up,  and  also  many  of  the  rich  country  neighbor 
hoods.  In  these  they  erected  their  church  edi 
fices  and  their  school-houses.  To  their  churches 
at  an  early  day  immense  congregations  flocked  from 
all  the  surrounding  country,  to  attend  divine  ser 
vices.*  But  as  the  population  spread  out  from  the 
towns  and  the  valleys,  into  the  hills  and  mountains, 
Presbyterian  ministers  were  unable  in  all  cases  to 
accompany  their  members. 

The  result  was,  the  pioneer  Methodists  and  the 
Baptists  came  along  and  picked  up  these  Presby 
terian  stragglers.  The  Presbyterian  Church  did 
not  have  the  ministers  necessary  to  meet  the  great 
and  constantly  increasing  demands  of  a  vast  and 
ever-widening  territory.  However  laborious  they 
may  have  been,  however  active  in  missionary  or 
evangelical  work,  and  however  earnest  and  ener 
getic  in  planting  new  churches,  it  was  impossible 
for  a  few  men  to  meet  the  wants  of  all  the  new 
towns  and  new  settlements  which  were  constantly 
springing  into  being.  Many  settlements  had  to  be 

*  The  Presbyterian  Church,  in  Greenville,  Tenn.,  contained 
at  an  early  day  1,000  members,  while  the  town  was  a  mere  vil 
lage  and  the  population  of  the  county  small. 


234     COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

neglected,  and  were  therefore  lost  to  the  Presby 
terian  Church.  Many  evidences  exist  of  the  en 
ergy,  industry  and  zeal  of  the  early  Presbyterian 
ministers  in  the  South,  in  the  closing  quarter  of 
the  last  and  in  the  early  part  of  this  century.  But 
it  was  beyond  human  ability  to  do  all  things  at 
once.  It  was  impossible  for  a  few  men  to  estab 
lish  and  teach  schools,  conduct  colleges,  build 
churches,  preach- at  stated  times,  perhaps  to  sev 
eral  congregations  widely  separated,  and  also  to 
follow  the  settlements  in  the  discharge  of  minis 
terial  duties  as  they  rapidly  spread  southward  and 
westward. 

The  Methodist  Church  was  very  weak  in  the 
days  of  the  devolution,  and  for  some  time  after 
ward,  in  the  Colonies.  When  Asbury  came  to 
this  country,  in  1770,  he  found  14  preachers  and 
371  members  of  his  denomination.  When  he  died, 
in  1816,  there  were  2,700  ministers  and  214,000 
members.  In  1785  they  numbered  only  10,000, 
with  104  preachers.*  In  1784  there  were  just  60 
members  in  the  Holston  Circuit,  which  embraced 
nearly  all  of  South-west  Virginia,  and  all  of  upper 
East  Tennessee.f  In  1890  there  were  30,000  min 
isters  and  4,589,284  members  in  the  United  States. 

*  Methodism  in  Tennessee,  Vol.  T,  28. 
t  Id.  32. 


PRESBYTERIANS    AND    OTHER   DENOMINATIONS.     235 

Most  opportune  was  the  coming  of  Asbury,  in 
troducing  a  new  system  and  a  new  element  of 
spiritual  life  into  the  country.  The  Presbyterians 
had  already  occupied  the  towns  and  the  densely 
populated  neighborhoods,  but  the  hills,  the  obscure 
corners,  the  mountain  recesses  had  not  been 
reached. 

The  Methodist  itinerant  system  exactly  met  this 
want.  Under  it  there  was  no  point  so  remote,  no 
corner  inhabited  by  men  so  obscure  or  inaccessi 
ble,  that  was  not  reached.  Earnest,  fervent  and 
aggressive,  though  often  rude  and  uneducated,  the 
itinerant  preacher  did  his  work  bravely,  patiently, 
joyfully.  He  soon  arrested  attention,  found  listen 
ers,  made  converts,  and  then  the  rude  church  edi 
fice  arose  in  the  wilderness.  In  summer's  heat,  or 
winter's  cold,  in  rain,  or  sleet,  or  snow  ;  Sabbath 
and  week-day  alike,  badly  clad,  shivering  with 
cold,  pinched  with  hunger,  often  ridiculed  or  re 
viled,  and  sometimes  maltreated,  the  humble, 
faithful  itinerant  uncomplainingly  went  about, 
from  year  to  year,  as  he  was  ordered  by  the 
bishop.  It  mattered  not  whether  his  lot  fell  in 
the  older  settlements,  or  in  the  wild  mountains,  or 
on  the  dangerous  frontier,  or  across  swollen 
streams,  his  duty  was  to  go.  There  was  no  moun 
tain  so  high  but  it  was  passed,  no  stream  so  broad 


236  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

or  deep  but  it  was  crossed,  no  wilderness  so  lonely 
but  it  was  penetrated,  no  inhabited  nook  or  corner 
but  it  was  found.  The  itinerant  may  not  have 
been  learned,  nor  eloquent,  nor  brilliant,  but  if  he 
had  the  spirit  of  Wesley,  if  his  lips  had  been 
touched  by  a  live  coal  off  the  altar,  men  would 
hear,  and  many  would  heed  him. 

The  machinery  which  put  these  itinerants  in 
motion  was  moved  and  controlled  by  strong  arms 
and  intelligent  heads,  and  directed  by  almost  ab 
solute  authority.  There  was  no  friction  in  its 
movements.  Nothing  could  have  been  devised 
more  efficient  for  widespread  conquests.  Nothing 
could  have  so  perfectly  met  the  wants  of  a  new 
and  widely  extended  country.  The  growth  of  the 
Methodis't  Church  is  a  marvel,  as  much  so  as  the 
unparalleled  growth  of  our  republic.  And  yet  it 
is  exactly  what  ought  to  have  been  expected  from 
such  a  system  of  church  polity  in  a  new  country. 

The  growth  of  the  Baptist  Church  is  but  little 
less  remarkable  than  that  of  the  Methodist.  It, 
however,  had  an  existence  in  England,  in  Holland 
and  in  the  Colonies  long  before  the  Methodist 
Church  was  born.  Its  membership  in  the  United 
States  in  1890  was  3,712,468,  only  776,716  less  than 
the  Methodists. 

The  record  of  the  Baptists  in  the  cause  of  politi- 


PRESBYTERIANS    AND    OTHER    DENOMINATIONS.     237 

cal  and  religious  freedom  is  a  noble  one.  When 
the  Baptists  from  England  established  their  church 
in  Amsterdam,  in  1611,  they  declared:  "The 
magistrate  is  not  to  meddle  with  religion  or  mat 
ters  of  conscience,  nor  compel  men  to  this  or  that 
form  of  religion."  .  .  .  "But  no  words  of 
praise  can  be  too  strong  for  the  service  which  the 
English  Baptists  have  rendered  to  the  cause  of  re 
ligious  liberty."*  Under  the  general  name  of  In 
dependents,  they  formed  a  part  of  Cromwell's 
invincible  army;  they  went  down  with  the  Com 
monwealth  and  afterward  suffered  relentless  per 
secutions,  f  In  the  Colonies,  Roger  Williams  was 
the  first  man  to  proclaim  the  great  doctrine  that 
conscience  should  be  free.  He  protested  to  the 
bigoted  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  that  "the  doc 
trine  of  persecution  for  cause  of  conscience  is 
most  evidently  and  ^lamentably  contrary  to  the 
doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ."  Such  sentiments  could 
not  be  tolerated  at  that  day  by  Puritan  Massa 
chusetts,  and  he  was  accordingly  banished  to 
Rhode  Island.  There  he  established  the  first  Bap 
tist  Church  in  the  Colonies.  In  the  Revolution 
the  Baptists  were  faithful,  as  they  ever  have  been 

*  Campbell's  Puritans,  Vol.  II,  202. 
t  Id.  203. 


238     COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

to  the  cause  of  independence  and  the  cause  of 
human  freedom. 

While  many  of  the  Baptists,  both  preachers  and 
laymen,  are  uneducated  and  ignorant,  especially 
in  the  great  mountain  regions  of  the  South,  and 
some  of  them  are  opposed  to  education,  they  have 
done  a  great  work  in  restraining  vice  and  in  lift 
ing  men  into  a  higher  life.  Though  the  preacher 
may  not  always  be  learned,  he  is  more  so  than 
most  of  his  congregation.  Though  he  may  be  ig 
norant,  and  he, is  often  densely  so,  yet  what  he 
has  to  say  is  on  the  side  of  morality.  He  at  least 
is  capable  of  leading  those  who  have  had  less  ad 
vantages  than  himself,  and  he  generally  leads  in 
the  right  direction.  Better  a  feeble  light  than 
pagan  darkness. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  state  that  Pennsylvania, 
in  the  North,  with  216,248  members,  is  the  great 
stronghold  of  Presbyterianism,  while  Tennessee 
takes jthe  lead  in  the  South,  having  66,573  mem 
bers.  North  Carolina  is  foremost  among  all  the 
Southern  States  in  Methodism,  having  276,336 
members;  then  follows  Georgia  with  275,784. 
Georgia  leads  all  the  States  in  the  number  of  Bap 
tists,  having  337,241,  followed  by  Virginia  with 
303,134.  The  Roman  Catholics  far  exceed  in 
number  any  other  denomination  in  any  single 


PRESBYTERIANS    AND    OTHER    DENOMINATIONS.     239 

State,  having  in  the  State  of  New  York  1,153,650 
members.  In  Massachusetts  they  have  615,072 
members,  and  this  is  more  than  double  the  num 
ber  of  all  the  other  denominations  in  that  State 
The  total  number  of  Roman  Catholics  in  the 
United  States  is  6,257,871;  Lutherans,  1,231,072; 
Disciples  of  Christ,  641,051 ;  Protestant  Episco 
palians,  540,509 ;  and  Congregationalists,  512,771. 

While  no  exact  standard  of  education,  indeed, 
while  no  education  at  all  is  required  in  the  Baptist 
Church,  as  a  qualification  for  preaching,  it  must 
not  be  inferred  that  the  great  body  of  that  de 
nomination  is  indifferent  to  this  vital  matter. 
Such  is  not  the  case.  As  a  denomination  they  are 
now  as  thoroughly  alive  to  its  importance  as  any 
other.  They  have  many  very  learned  and  able 
men.  In  every  part  of  the  country  their  colleges 
and  universities  are  found,  some  of  them  among 
the  leading  educational  institutions  of  our  land. 

It  is  little  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  Methodists 
and  the  Baptists  outnumber  the  Presbyterians  in 
the  Southern  States,  even  in  those  States  and  sec 
tions  where  the  latter  at  one  time  had  the  un 
doubted  ascendency,  when  all  the  conditions  are 
taken  into  account. 

The  Presbyterians  must  have  a  high  degree  of 
scholarship,  as  well  as  a  thorough  training  in  the- 


240  COVENANTER,    CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

ology,  before  he  is  allowed  to  officiate  as  a  minister. 
These  requisites  are  always  insisted  upon.  It 
might,  therefore,  be  expected  that  the  candidates 
for  the  ministry  would  not  be  as  numerous  as  they 
would  be  under  a  lower  standard.  And  yet,  strange 
to  say,  notwithstanding  the  long  and  expensive 
preparation  which  is  necessary  for  an  entrance  into 
the  Presbyterian  ministry,  the  number  of  minis 
ters  in  that  church,  in  proportion  to  their  respec 
tive  membership,  very  decidedly  exceeds  the  num 
ber  either  in  the  Methodist  or  the  Baptist  Churches. 
The  ratio  is  about  as  four  to  three.  The  Metho 
dist  members  (17  bodies)  number  4,589,264;  they 
have  80,000  ministers.  Baptists  members  (13 
bodies)  number  3,712,468;  they  have  25,646  minis 
ters.  Presbyterian  members  (12  bodies)  number 
1,278,882,  and  they  have  10,448  ministers.  Total 
number  of  Presbyterians  and  Reformed  (Presby 
terians)  1,587,790,  having  11,944  ministers. 

It  is  perhaps  not  inappropriate  in  this  connection 
to  bear  unequivocal  testimony  in  behalf  of  the 
usefulness  of  the  Christian  ministry,  even  aside 
from  the  religious  aspects  of  the  question.  One 
of  the  most  potent  agencies  for  the  education  of 
the  people,  whether  in  city  or  country,  for  the  for 
mation  of  healthy  public  sentiment,  and  for  the 
dissemination  of  advanced  thought  is  the  pulpit. 


PRESBYTERIANS    AND    OTHER   DENOMINATIONS.      241 

It  arouses  by  suggestion  public  thought  and  pri 
vate  investigation.  It  arrests  and  directs  public 
attention.  Sermons  from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath  from 
the  lips  of  men  of  real  learning  and  ability,  are 
equal  to  the  best  popular  lectures.  They  direct 
the  minds  of  the  hearers  into  new  channels  of 
thought  and  investigation.  As  a  factor  in  the  de 
velopment  of  modern  civilization  the  vast  influence 
of  the  pulpit  can  never  be  overestimated. 

No  one  can  understand  the  history  of  our  country 
who  does  not  study  the  history  of  the  church. 
The  pulpit  has  been  in  modern  times  one  of  the 
greatest  instrumentalities,  perhaps  the  greatest,  in 
ridding  the  world  of  tyranny  and  oppression,  both 
of  body  and  mind.  It  first  proclaimed  the  right  ol 
freedom  of  conscience.  This  by  an  easy  step  led  to 
freedom  of  speech  and  freedom  of  political  action. 
These  are  all  related  and  flow  from  the  same  source. 
In  these  days,  when  so  many  scholars  affect  free- 
thinking,  it  may  be  well  also  to  bear  testimony  to  the 
beneficent  influence,  even  as  a  moral  agency,  of  the 
Christian  religion  in  civilizing  the  world.  Religion, 
in  this  sense,  is  civilization  in  its  highest  form. 
Education  has  done  much  in  this  direction,  but 
it  educates  the  head  and  not  the  heart.  Educa 
tion  alone  rarely  makes  men  better.  It  sometimes 
20 


242  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

makes  them  worse.  It  furnishes  greater  power 
for  evil.  When  men  feel  themselves  absolved 
from  all  moral  and  religious  restraints,  they  are 
apt  to  become  demons.  The  scanctity  of  all  law 
must  rest  on  conscience  and  an  enlightened  public 
sense.  Strike  out  all  religious  ideas,  beliefs  and 
creeds,  from  among  the  most  advanced  people  on 
the  globe,  and  they  would  at  once  turn  back  to 
ward  barbaric  ideas  and  practices.  Take  away 
the  security  given  by  religion  to  the  sacredness  of 
home,  the  honor  of  women,  the  inviolability  of 
property,  and  the  repose  of  society,  and  soon  law 
would  become  as  impotent  as  mere  gossamer. 
France,  in  her  mad  intoxication  during  the  Revo 
lution,  abolished  religion  and  the  Sabbath,  and 
rivers  of  blood  flowed  through  the  streets  of  her 
capitol.  The  magistrates  of  Rome  understood  the 
necessity  of  religion  to  restrain  the  wild  passions 
of  men.  Gibbon,  speaking  of  the  different  forms  of 
worship  of  their  deities,  says:  "  They  were  all 
considered  by  the  people  as  equally  true,  by  the 
philosophers  as  equally  false,  and  by  the  magis 
trates  as  equally  useful." 

The  author  of  the  Prince  of  India  puts  into  the 
mouth  of  one  of  his  characters  these  words:  "  The 
study  of  greatest  interest  is  religion.  I  have  trav 
eled  the  world  over,  I  mean  the  inhabited  parts, 


PRESBYTERIANS    AND    OTHER   DENOMINATIONS.      243 

and  in  its  broad  extent  there  is  not  a  people  with 
out  worship  of  some  kind.  Wherefore  my  asser 
tion  that  beyond  the  arts,  above  the  sciences,  above 
commerce,  above  any  or  all  other  human  con 
cernments,  religion  is  the  superlative  interest.  It 
alone  is  divine.  The  study  of  it  is  worship. 
Knowledge  of  it  is  knowledge  of  God.* 

Froude,  the  great  historian,  in  one  of  his  ad 
dresses,  said :  "  Science  only  deals  with  generals, 
but  religion  goes  to  the  heart  of  the  individual ; 
and  so  I  feel  that  on  this  basis  religion  is  im 
pregnable  against  all  the  assaults  of  science.  You 
may  take  rny  word  for  it  that  all  that  is  grand, 
sublime,  of  benefit  to  the  race,  has  come  out  of 
faith,  and  not  out  of  skepticism.  One  lesson,  and 
one  only,  history  may  be  said  to  repeat  with  dis 
tinctness — that  the  world  is  built  somehow  on 
moral  foundations,  that  in  the  long  run  it  is  well 
with  the  good,  in  the  long  run  it  is  ill  with  the 
wicked." 

In  this  connection  the  world  can  never  suffi 
ciently  honor  and  revere  the  names  and  memories 
of  Luther,  Calvin,  Knox  and  Roger  Williams.  At 
a  later  day,  John  Wesley  taught  the  same  great 
truths,  upon  which  the  fabric  of  our  free  institutions 
was  founded  by  our  fathers,  and  now  so  securely 

*  Prince  of  India,  Vol.  I,  119. 


244 

reposes  in  majestic  grandeur.*  Let  the  world  honor 
these  great  men,  as  benefactors  of  their  race,  for 
what  they  so  grandly  achieved  in  making  civil 
and  religious  liberty  possible  for  men. 

But  let  the  world  forever  remember  that  these 
earlier  great  reformers  opened  and  paved  the  way 
for  the  work  of  Wesley  and  Methodism,  by  secur 
ing  freedom  of  worship  and  freedom  of  conscience. 
But  for  them  this  work  would  have  been  impos 
sible.  Let  those  who  would  criticize  Presbyterian- 
ism  on  account  of  its  rigid  and  austere  theology 
remember  that  to  this  great  sect,  in  its  various 
forms,  more  than  to  any  other  human  agency, 
is  due  our  political  and  religious  liberty.  Let 
them  remember  that  Presbyterianism  came  to  the 


*  John  Wesley,  on  getting  the  tiding  of  the  battles  of  Lexing 
ton  and  Concord,  thought  that  "  silence  on  his  part  would  be  a 
sin  against  God,  against  his  country  and  against  his  own  soul," 
and  he  wrote  severally  to  Dartmouth  and  Lord  North,  saying: 

'*  In  spite  of  all  my  long-rooted  prejudices,  I  can  not  avoid 
thinking  these  an  oppressed  people  asking  for  nothing  more  than 
their  legal  rights,  and  that  in  the  most  modest  and  inoffensive 
manner  that  the  nature  of  the  thing  will  allow.  Is  it  common 
sense  to  use  force  against  the  Americans  ?  They  are  strong ; 
they  are  valiant ;  they  are  one  and  all  enthusiasts — enthusiasts 
for  liberty— calm,  deliberate  enthusiasts.  They  are  terribly 
united ;  they  think  they  are  contending  for  their  wives,  chil 
dren  and  liberty."  Presbyterians  and  the  Revolution,  17. 


PRESBYTERIANS  AND  OTHER  DENOMINATIONS.  245 

Middle  Colonies  and  to  the  South,  in  the  persons 
of  the  Huguenots  and  the  early  Covenanter  set 
tlers,  first  filling  the  country  with  schools  and 
churches,  and  with  the  cry  for  freedom  and  a  free 
religion.  The  Puritans,  the  Pilgrims,  the  Cove 
nanters  and  the  Baptists  did  the  same  great  work 
for  education  and  for  freedom  in  New  England. 

It  can  be  affirmed  as  a  truth,  that  during  the 
last  half  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  first  quarter  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  the  Presbyterians  did  more 
for  the  cause  of  classical  education  in  the  old 
South  than  all  the  other  denominations  combined. 
Since  the  period  I  have  named,  other  sects,  and 
notably  the  Methodists,  the  Baptists  and  the  Epis 
copalians,  have  also  been  doing  a  noble  work  in 
this  direction. 

Viewing  Presbyterianism,  or  Calvinism,  from 
an  earlier  period,  we  see  that  the  fruit  which  it 
bore  in  the  Colonies  was  the  natural  product  of 
the  seed  sown  in  Europe. 

"Calvinism,"  says  Mr.  Bancroft,  "is  gradual 
Republicanism."  Froude  calls  "  Calvinism  the 
Creed  of  Republics." 

"  It  was  to  Geneva,"  writes  Mr.  Villiers  (quoted 
by  Smythe),  "  that  all  the  proscribed  exiles,  who 
were  driven  from  England  by  the  intolerance  of 
Mary,  came  to  get  intoxicated  with  republicanism. 


246        COVENANTER,  CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN. 

and  from  this  focus  they  brought  hack  with  them 
those  Principles  of  Republicanism  which  annoyed 
Elizabeth,  perplexed  and  resisted  James,  and 
brought  Charles  to  the  deserved  death  of  a 
traitor."  * 

u  Not  merely  in  their  representative  assemblies," 
writes  Hallam,  of  the  preachers  of  Knox's  school, 
"  but  in  their  pulpits  they  perpetually  remonstrated, 
in  no  guarded  language,  against  the  misgovern- 
ment  of  the  court  and  even  the  personal  indiscre 
tions  of  the  king."  f 

Of  the  Scottish  preachers  Macaulay  writes: 
"  They  inherited  the  republican  opinions  of  Knox." 

Carlisle  says  :  "  Protestanism  was  a  revolt  against 
spiritual  sovereignties,  pppes,  and  much  else;  Pres- 
byterianism  carried  out  the  revolt  against  earthly 
sovereignties."  J 

King  James  said  that  "a  Scot's  Presbytery" 
agreed  "as  well  with  monarchy  as  God  and  the 
devil."  || 

Bancroft  said  :  "  The  political  character  of  Cal 
vinism,"  with  one  consent  and  with  instinctive 
judgment,  the  monarchs  of  that  day  feared  as  re 
publicanism,  and  Charles  I  declared  it  ua  religion 
unfit  for  a  gentleman,"  etc. 

*  Presbyterianistn  and  the  Revolution,  25. 
tld.  26.  Jld.  34.  I  Id.  37. 


PRESBYTERIANS    AND    OTHER   DENOMINATIONS.      247 

"  Show  me,"  said  Charles,  "  any  precedent  where 
presbyterial  government  and  regal  power  were  to 
gether  without  perpetual  rebellions.  It  can  not  be 
otherwise,  for  the  ground  of  their  doctrine  is  anti- 
mouarchial."  * 

"Calvinism  wras  revolutionary,"  writes  Bancroft. 
"By  the  side  of  the  eternal  mountains,  the  peren 
nial  snows,  and  arrowy  rivers  of  Switzerland,  it  es- 
tablishe,d  a  government  without  a  king.  It  was 
powerful  in  France.  It  entered  Holland,  infusing 
an  industrious  nation  with  heroic  enthusiasm.  It 
penetrated  Scotland,  and  nerved  its  rugged  but 
hearty  envoy  to  resist  the  flatterers  of  Queen  Mary. 
It  infused  itself  into  England,  and  placed  its  plebeian 
sympathies  in  strong  resistance  to  the  courtly  hie 
rarchy.  Inviting  every  man  to  read  the  Bible,  and 
teaching  as  a  divine  revelation  the  natural  equality 
of  man,  it  claimed  freedom  of  utterance.  It  in 
spired  its  converts  to  cross  the  Atlantic  and  sail 
away  from  the  traditions  of  the  church,  from  hered 
itary  power,  from  the  sovereignty  of  earthly  kings, 
and  from  all  dominion  but  that  of  the  Bible,  and 
such  as  arose  from  natural  reason  and  equity. "f 

Motley  says:  "Holland,  England,  and  America 
owe  their  liberties  to  Calvinists."  Ranke,  the  great 
German  historian,  as  well  as  D'Aubigne,  say: 

*  Presbyterianism  and  the  Revolution,  28.  t  Id. 


248  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

"  Calvin  was  the  true  founder  of  the  American 
government."  Hume,  Macau  lay,  Buckle,  Froude, 
and  Lecky  all  affirm  that  it  was  the  stern,  unflinch 
ing  courage  of  the  Calvanistic  Puritan  that  won 
the  priceless  heritage  of  English  liberty."* 

Rufus  Choate,  speaking  of  the  Calvinists,  said: 
"  In  the  reign  of  Mary  (of  England)  a  thousand 
artisans  fled  from  the  stake  at  home  to  the  happier 
States  of  Continental  Protestantism.  Of  these, 
great  numbers,  I  know  not  how  many,  came  to 
Geneva.  ...  I  ascribe  to  that  five  years  in 
Geneva  an  influence  which  has  changed  the  history 
of  the  world.  I  seem  to  myself  to  trace  to  it,  as  an 
influence  on  the  English  character,  a  new  theology, 
new  polities,  another  tone  of  character,  the  open 
ing  of  another  era  of  time  and  liberty.  I  seem  to 
myself  to  trace  to  it  the  great  Civil  War  in  En 
gland,  the  Republican  Constitution  framed  in  the 
cabin  of  the  Mayflower,  the  divinity  (theology)  of 
Jonathan  Edwards,  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  the 
Independence  of  America." 

Thomas  Carlyle  said  of  John  Knox  : 
"That  which   John  Knox   did  for  his  nation,  I 
say,  we   may   really   call   a   resurrection  as   from 
death.     ...     The  people  began    to  live;    they 

*  Address  of  J.  H.  Bryson,  D.  D.,  before  Scotch-Irish  Con 
gress,  Vol.  II,  101. 


PRESBYTERIANS    AND    OTHER    DENOMINATIONS.      249 

needed,  first  of  all,  to  do  that,  at  what  cost  soever. 
.  .  .  He  is  the  one  Scotchman  to  whom  his 
country  and  the  whole  world  owe  a  debt/' 

Mr.  Motley,  speaking  of  the  influence  of  Calvin 
ism  in  the  Netherlands,  says  : 

"It  would  certainly  be  unjust  and  futile  to  de 
tract  from  the  vast  debt  that  Republic  owed  to  the 
Genevan  Church.  The  Reformation  had  entered 
the  Netherlands  by  the  Walloon  gate  (that  is, 
through  the  Calvinists).  The  earliest  and  most 
eloquent  preachers,  the  most  impassioned  converts, 
the  sublimest  martyrs,  had  lived,  preached,  fought, 
suffered  and  died  with  the  precepts  of  Calvin  in 
their  hearts.  The  fire  which  had  consumed  the 
last  vestige  of  royal  and  saceredotal  despotism 
throughout  the  independent  republic,  had  been 
lighted  by  the  hands  of  Calvinists.  Throughout 
the  blood-stained  soil  of  France,  too,  the  men  who 
were  fighting  the  same  great  battle  as  were  the 
Netherlands  against  Philip  II,  and  the  Inquisition, 
the  valiant  Cavaliers  of  Dauphiny  and  Provence, 
knelt  on  the  ground  before  the  battle,  smote  their 
iron  breasts  with  their  mailed  hands,  uttered  a 
Calvinistic  prayer,  sang  a  psalm  of  Marot,  arid 
then  charged  upon  the  Guise  or  upon  the  Joyeuse 
under  the  white  plume  of  the'Bearnese.  .  .  . 
To  the  Calvinists  more  than  any  other  class  of 


250  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER   AND    PURITAN. 

men,  the  political  liberties  of  England,   Holland 
and  America  are  due." 

Mr.  Buckle,  not  a  Calvinist,  but  often  very  bitter 
against  that  sect,  said  in  his  history : 

"In  their  pulpits,  in  their  Presbyteries,  and  in 
their  General  Assemblies,  they  encouraged  a  demo 
cratic  and  insubordinate  tone,  which  eventually 
produced  the  happiest  results  by  keeping  alive,  at 
a  critical  moment,  the  spirit  of  liberty.  .  .  . 
Much  they  did  which  excites  our  strongest  aver 
sion.  .  .  . 

"  (But)  what  the  nobles  and  the  crown  had  put 
in  peril,  that  did  the  clergy  save.  %  .  .  They 
were  the  guardians  of  Scotch  freedom,  and  they 
stood  to  their  post;  where  danger  was,  they  were 
foremost.  By  their  sermons,  by  their  conduct, 
both  public  and  private,  by  the  proceedings  of 
their  Assemblies,  by  their  bold  and  frequent  attack 
upon  persons,  without  regard  to  their  rank,  nay, 
even  by  the  very  insolence  with  which  they  treated 
their  superiors,  they  stirred  up  the  minds  of  men, 
woke  them  from  their  lethargy,  formed  them  to 
habits  of  discussion,  and  excited  that  inquisitive 
and  democratic  spirit  which  is  the  only  effectual 
guarantee  the  people  can  ever  possess  against  the 
tyranny  of  those  who  are  set  over  them.  This  was 
the  work  of  the  Scotch  clergy,  and  all  hail  to  them 


PRESBYTERIANS    AND    OTHER   DENOMINATIONS.     251 

who  did  it.     To  those  men,  England  and  Scotland 
owe  a  debt  they  can  never  repay." 

Again  Mr.  Bancroft  said  of  Calvin: 

"  He  that  will  not  honor  the  memory  and  re 
spect  the  influence  of  Calvin,  knows  but  little  of 
the  origin  of  American  Independence  .  .  . 
The  light  of  his  genius  shattered  the  work  of  dark 
ness,  which  superstition  had  held  for  centuries 
before  the  brow  of  religion.'' 

These  extracts  reflect  the  voice  of  history. 

The  wonderful  record  and  deeds  of  Presbyteri- 
anism  in  behalf  of  mankind,  can  never  cease  to  call 
forth  the  enthusiastic  praise  of  every  lover  of 
liberty.  English,  Scotch,  Scotch-Irish,  Dutch, 
Huguenot,  Swiss  and  Colonial  Presbyterianism, 
in  all  its  various  forms,  with  the  never-failing  aid 
of  the  humble  Baptists,  gave  freedom  to  the  world. 
It  was  the  great  reforming  power  of  modern  times. 
Its  mission  was  to  emancipate,  enlighten,  regen 
erate,  educate  and  elevate  the  human  race;  to 
make  it  freer  and  better.  It  taught  the  humblest 
citizen  to  feel  that  before  God  and  the  law,  he  was 
the  equal  of  every  other  man.  It  shattered  and 
shivered  the  blind  and  hoary-headed  falsehood  of 
the  u  divine  right  of  kings,"  and  the  sacredness  of 
their  persons,  and  forever  exploded  and  annihilated 
the  slavish  dogma  of  "  passive  obedience  and  non- 


252  COVENANTER,   CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

resistance"  to  arbitrary  power.  It  broke  the 
shackles  of  priestly  superstition  from  the  minds 
and  consciences  of  men,  and  the  iron  fetters  from 
their  bodies.  It  made  man  as  well  as  religion  free. 

And  on  this  continent,  the  great  reforming 
forces,  the  Covenanter,  the  Puritan,  the  Pilgrim, 
the  Baptist,  the  Huguenot,  the  Dutch, — all  of  the 
Calvinistic  family, — but  always  in  the  van,  the 
Covenanter  gave  to  the  world  the  example  of  a 
"  State  without  a  king,  and  a  church  without  a 
bishop."  Whenever  this  sturdy  Covenanter  en 
tered  the  wilderness,  in  Colonial  days,  he  carried 
with  him  the  Bible,  the  axe,  and  a  gun,  with  a 
blazing  torch  in  his  right  hand.  And  thus  I  would 
paint  him,  or  chisel  him  in  marble.  I  would 
represent  him  as  St.  Paul  is  painted  by  some  of 
the  earlier  artists — as  earnest,  rugged,  severe  in 
aspect,  with  knit  brow  and  pressed  lips,  with 
forward  step  and  eye,  and  his  face  glowing  with 
the  light  of  faith  and  hope. 

In  concluding  this  chapter,  I  bear  cheerful  tes 
timony,  as  all  history  does,  to  the  steadfast  devo 
tion  in  all  countries  and  in  all  places,  of  the  Bap 
tists  to  the  cause  of  religious  and  political  freedom. 
I  also  give  the  most  sincere  and  enthusiastic  praise 
to  the  Methodists  for  their  wonderful  work  in  the 
reformation  of  the  world,  and  for  their  own  ad- 


PRESBYTERIANS   AND    OTHER   DENOMINATIONS.     253 

vancement  and  progress  in  the  cause  of  education. 
At  the  same  time,  I  can  not  overlook  the  fact  that 
the  Presbyterians,  above  all  other  denominations, 
have  been  pre-eminently  illustrious  in  the  great 
cause  of  human  rights,  and  in  asserting  and  main 
taining  every- where  on  this  continent,  in  every 
possible  manner,  the  sacred  right  of  the  people  to 
the  enjoyment  of  a  free  conscience,  a  free  religion 
and  a  free  State.  In  moral  living,  they  demand 
purity  and  exalted  integrity;  in  the  Christian  life, 
self-denial,  sacrifice  and  consecration.  The  highest 
and  the  most  exalting  principles  of  justice,  honor, 
charity,  rectitude  and  purity  of  life,  from  the 
earliest  times,  have  been  inculcated  both  in  the 
home  and  in  the  pulpit.  The  fruit  of  the  severe, 
rigid  and  uncompromising  teachings  of  the  Cove 
nanter  fathers — those  stern,  Godly  men  of  the 
early  days  of  the  Republic — can  be  seen,  after  the 
lapse  of  a  hundred  years,  in  every  community  in 
which  they  held  sway.  They  can  be  seen  in  the 
obedient  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  as  a  holy  day, 
in  the  strictness  of  family  government,  in  the 
gravity  and  sobriety  of  the  lives  of  the  people,  and 
in  a  reverent  respect  for  all  things  sacred. 

The  record  of  Presbyterianism  in  the  South  is 
one  of  which  that  church  may  well  be  proud.  In 
every  great  movement  and  work  of  the  age,  for 


254  COVENANTER,  CAVALIER    AND    PURITAN. 

advancing  the  condition  and  the  happiness  of  man 
kind,  for  lifting  men  up  to  a  higher  plane  of  living, 
for  ameliorating  suffering  and  misery,  in  the  great 
works  of  charity  and  love,  and  in  promoting  a 
Christian  morality  and  a  pure  religion,  that  church 
has  always  been  foremost.  And  though  it  is  out 
numbered  by  three  other  churches,  yet  in  main 
taining  a  pure  and  spotless  religion,  in  all  the 
great  works  of  reform,  charity  and  education,  and 
in  the  great  missionary  work  of  evangelizing  the 
world,  it  can  securely  challenge  a  friendly  com 
parison  with  the  records  of  any  other  sect  or 
church  in  the  United  States. 


INDEX. 


Abingdon,  Va.,  54. 

Adair,  John,  69. 

Adams,  John,  on  Bishops  in  the  Col 
onies,  45;  quoted  on  popular  liberty 
in  Massachusets,  84;  referred  to, 
205;  on  independence,  86;  estimate 
of  number  of  Tories,  101;  John 
and  Samuel,  133;  Charles  Francis, 
quoted,  189,  190, 191, 195,  198,  201,  203, 
205. 

Alexanders  mentioned,  130. 

Alleghauies.  the.  78. 

American  Colonies,  32. 

Augusta  Co.,  Va.,  memorial  from,  51. 

Bacon,  Nathaniel's  rebellion,  126;  ed 
ucated  gentleman,  drew  his  sword 
in  defense  of  ancient  rights,  145. 

Bancroft  on  Scotch-Irish  Presbyte 
rians,  42 

Bancroft,  quoted  as  to  Quakers,  184. 

Baptists,  105,  121;  in  the  pillory,  185; 
in  the  Revolution,  237;  number  of, 
238;  in  education,  239;  number  of 
ministers,  240. 

Baptist  Church,  noble  record  of,  236; 
referred  to,  252. 

Battle  of  Boyne,  28. 

Berkeley,  Sir  William,  on  education, 
121,  127. 

Bethel  Church,  a  sec«nd  League  and 
Covenant  signed,  138. 

"  Bishops'  War,"  23. 

Blairs  mentioned,  130. 

Boston,  people  empty  tea  into  the 
bay,  84;  port  of,  closed,  84;  its  char 
ter  revised,  84;  heroic  conduct  of 
the  citizens,  84;  Virginia,  Mary 
land,  and  New  York  send  supplies 
to  Boston,  85;  brave  words  of  Chris 
topher  Gadsden,  85. 

Book  of  Discipline,  of  Canons  and 
Liturgies,  18. 

Boone,  Daniel,  7. 

Breekenridges  mentioned,  130. 

British  policy  as  to  Western  settle 
ments,  76;  fndian  allies,  76. 

Bruce.  Philip  Alexander,  quoted,  146. 

Bryant's  History,  quoted,  113,  203. 

Bryson,  J.  H.,  referred  to  and  quoted. 
248. 

Buckle,  referred  to,  248. 


Burke,  Edmund,  quoted  on  the  love 
of  liberiy  in  the  Southern  Colo 
nies,  147. 

Burke,  John,  quoted,  125. 

Caldvvell,  J.  W.,  mentioned  in  pref 
ace. 

Calhoun,  Patrick,  quoted  on  the  Cov 
enanters.  152. 

Calvin,  John,  mentioned,  243;  the 
true  founder  of  the  American  gov 
ernment,  247;  Bancroft  on,  251. 

Calvinism  in  Massachusetts,  187;  its 
effect,  187;  in  the  Netherlands,  in 
Ulster,  in  England,  in  the  Dutch 
Colony  of  New  York,  and  in  other 
Colonies,  198;  defined  by  Bancroft, 
245;  denned  by  Froude,  245;  de 
scribed  by  Villiers,  245;  Bancroft 
on,  246,247;  Motley  on,  247;  Charles 
I  on,  246.  247;  Choate,  Rufus,  on, 
248;  Motley  on  influence  of,  in 
Netherlands,  249. 

Calvinistic  faith,  11. 

Calvinistic  Puritans  of  England,  248. 

Campbell,  David,  on  early  settlers  on 
the  Hoiston,  162. 

Campbell,  Douglas,  quoted,  31,  32,  33, 
39,  139,  157,  182,  204;  Colonel  Arthur, 
mentioned,  54,  114;  Colonel  Will 
iam,  mentioned,  54,  68,  69,  114. 

Carr,  Peter,  note,  141. 

Catholic  priesthood,  11. 

Cavaliers  of  Virginia  hold  back,  52; 
enthusiastic  love  of  England,  86; 
love  of  the  English  Church,  86; 
were  the  petted  children  of  royalty, 
86;  slow  to  break  away  from  their 
mother,  86;  some  never  did,  86; 
others  fought  bravely  for  inde 
pendence,  87;  not  the  men  who 
started  the  Revolution,  87;  men 
tioned,  105;  and  Puritans,  117;  in 
Virginia,  118,  119,  120;  of  the  tide 
water  country,  127;  hospitality,  149; 
since  the  Revolution,  150;  the'ir  in 
fluence  on  the  thought  of  the 
South,  167. 

Charming,  William  Ellerv,  222. 

Charles  I,  19,  21. 

Charles  II,  19,  23. 

Christian,  Colonel,  54,  57. 

(255) 


256 


INDEX. 


Christian  ministry,  usefulness  of,  210. 

Chronicle,  Major,  71. 

Church  polity  of  Scotland,  17. 

Church  of  England,  IS,  19;  clergy  of, 
19. 

Church,  the  king  head  of,  20. 

Church  encourages  education,  38. 

Clarke,  Colonel,  68. 

Clarke.  General  George  Rogers,  bril 
liant  expedition,  7S. 

Claverhouse's  persecutions,  24. 

Clay.  Henry,  210. 

Cleveland, 'Colonel.  68. 

Colonial  charters,  ;->2. 

Continental  Congress.  48. 

Constitution  of  United  States,  forma 
tion  of,  74;  Covenanters'  part  in,  74. 

Common  people  in  Scotland,  11,  56, 
57;  join  the  Reformation,  11;  strip 
the  monasteries  of  images,  11. 

Coniwallis,  General,  73,  74. 

Covenanters,  League  and  Covenant. 
22;  signing  it.  24;  banished,  26; 
many  settle  in  Ireland,  26;  prosper 
ous  there,  27;  their  habits,  27;  de 
termine  to  leave  Ireland,  28;  influ 
ence  on  the  thought  of  the  world. 
29;  not  Englishmen,  88;  always  at 
war  with  England,  88;  accepted 
the  Reformation,  38;  denied  the 
right  to  exercise  their  religion,  88; 
heartless  atrocities  perpetrated  on 
them  and  broken  faith,  88;  flee  to 
the  Colonies,  88;  they  hate  En 
gland,  90;  regarded  as  'responsible 
for  the  War  of  Independence,  90; 
in  Pennsylvania,  they  push  the 
Quakers  aside,  90;  in  Virginia. 
overawe  the  aristocrats,  90;  in 
North  Carolina,  in  South  Carolina, 
91 ;  wrongs  recent,  89;  old  wrongs — 
memory  of  Claverhonse.  of  Both 
well  Bridge,  89;  of  Highland  sol 
diers—of  the  old  Castle  of  Edin 
burgh,  89;  influence  in  bringing 
on  the  Revolution,  90;  immigration 
of,  facts  given,  94,95;  in  New  York, 
96;  in  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Penn 
sylvania,  North  and  South  Caro 
lina,  Kentucky,  Georgia,  and  Ten 
nessee,  96,  97;  Alabama,  Missis 
sippi,  Louisiana,  Florida,  Arkan 
sas,  settled  by  them,  98;  Texas  and 
Missouri  also,  98;  more  than  one- 
half  of  fihting  population  of  the 
South,  103;  as  soldiers,  103;  fur 
nished  a  majority  of  men  to  the 
army  south  of  New  York,  103:  set 
tle  in  the  South,  106;  and  Puritans 
compared,  108,  109,  110;  scattered 
every-where  in  1775,  118;  their 
thoughts  and  opinions  in  Virginia, 
118;  entering  Virginia-^spreading 
westward— building  houses— mak 


ing  a  State,  128;  characteristics  of, 
128;  they  build  churches  and  start 
schools.  129;  influence  in  the  re 
forms  in  Virginia,  139;  Campbell 
quoted  on,  139:  influence  in  making 
4  Virginia  what  it  was,  149;  superior 
to  the  Cavaliers,  150:  characteris 
tics  pointed  out,  150;  religious  lib 
erty-toleration,  151;  Patrick  Cal- 
houn  on,  151;  better  educated  than 
the  Puritans,  155;  better  than  the 
English,  155;  immigrants  not  chil 
dren  of  ignorance,  156;  their  edu 
cation  in  Ireland,  156;  their  work 
in  the  Colonies.  156;  in  North  Car 
olina,  157;  in  South  Carolina,  158; 
in  Georgia,  159;  in  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky,  159;  in  New  Hampshire, 
159;  Campbell,  David,  on,  162;  not 
paupers,  162;  in  East  Tennessee, 
164;  in  Southern  States  scattered, 
165;  causes  of  decline  of  education, 
165, 166;  influence  of,  on  the  thought 
and  institutions  of  the  South  and 
West,  167;  forgotten  and  overlooked 
— reason  of,  16T;  left  their  impress 
on  the  Southern  mind,  172;  made 
the  Southern  States,  172;  great 
names  of,  173;  in  the  North-west, 
174;  influence  on  Southern  society, 
175;  conservatism  in  religion,  176: 
reactionary  influence  of,  on  En 
gland.  182;  drove  out  the  Church 
of  England,  183;  and  Puritans 
briefly  compared,  183;  denounced 
a  union  of  Church  and  State,  184; 
no  religious  tests,  184;  in  Massa 
chusetts,  201;  colony  in  Ulster,  201; 
influence  in  the  South,  204.  206; 
contrasted  with  Puritans,  212,  213, 
214.  215,  216:  difficulties,  hardships, 
disidvantages  of,  216,  217,218;  built 
up  civilization  in  South  and  West, 
218;  have  not  built  up  a  splendid 
literature — reasons  of,  22l;  they 
still  reappear  in  the  South,  225,  226; 
molded  the  institutions  of  the 
South,  228;  blood  of.  in  all  Church 
es,  231,  232;  term  no  longer  means  a 
sect,  but  a  race,  230,  231;  of  Western 
Pennsylvania  ready  for  the  Revo 
lution,' 46;  of  New  York,  46;  every 
where  active,  51:  sustain  Patrick 
Henry,  52,  87;  term  used  instead  of 
Scotch-Irish— reason  therefor,  41; 
Scotch -Irish  and  Scotch  Presbyte 
rians  included.  41;  their-agency  in 
bringing  on  the  Revolution,  42;  au 
thorities  quoted,  43,  44;  ministers 
in  the  colonies,  38;  ministers  all 
educated,  38;  ministers  establish 
schools,  38;  ministers  become 
teachers,  38;  schools  that  became 
colleges,  39;  fighting  on  the  fron- 


INDEX. 


257 


tiers,  75:  far-reaching  importance 

of.  75,  80. 

Craighead,  Rev.  Dr.,  38, 
Cumberland  settlements,  78. 
Cummings,  Rev.  Charles,  53. 

Delaware  College,  39. 

Doak,  Rev.  Samuel,  invokes  a  divine 

blessing  on  soldiers,  70. 
Draper's  King's  Mountain    and    its 

heroes,  67. 
Dublin.  37. 
Dutch,  referred  to,  252. 

Edinburgh,  34. 

Edmonson,  54. 

Education  in  the  Colonies,  r>7,  38, 
155;  higher  in  Scotland  than  in 
England,  155;  in  Ireland,  156. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  222. 

Egle,  Henry,  M.D.,  219. 

Emancipation  in  the  South  and  West, 
207,  208,  209;  in  Convention  of  Ten 
nessee,  210. 

Elizabeth,  15,  19. 

Embree,  Elihu,  208. 

England,  30;  Revolution  in,  30. 

English,  the,  3-1;  "  mainly  settled  the 
Colonies,  91;  in  the  Revolution, 
104;  schools  in  Ireland,  36;  settle 
ments,  37;  favored  delay  and  peti 
tions  as  a  remedy.  91;  people,  108. 

Episcopacy,  19;  in 'the  Colonies.  45. 

Episcopal  Church  in  Ireland,  27; 
Bishops  suspend  Presbyterian 
ministers,  27;  Bishops  persecute 
them,  27;  Church  in  the  Colonies, 
62;  Church  in  the  Revolution,  63: 
English  nearly  all  of  that  Church 
in  the  South, 91;  clergy  in  the  Rev 
olution,  59,  60. 

Episcopalians  in  Virginia,  patriotic, 
but  reluctant  to  break  away  from 
their  mother  Church,  87. 

Everett,  Alexander  H.,  quoted,  58; 
governor,  210. 

Ferguson,  Colonel,  68. 
Fincastle  Co.,  Va.,  action  of,  58. 
French  army  driven  out  of  Scotland, 

12. 
Froude  on  religion,  243. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  209,  210. 

Geneva,  32. 

Georgia,  107. 

Germans,  105. 

Gibbon,  on  usefulness  of  a  religion, 
242. 

Glasgow,  34. 

Graham,  Rev.  William,  quoted,  132. 

Greeneyille  College,  Tennessee,  39. 

Grey  Friars  Churchyard,  23;  weather- 
beaten  stone  in,  24,  note. 


Hambright,  Colonel,  68. 

Hamerton,  quoted,  34. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  74;  De  Talley 
rand's  opinion  of,  75. 

Hampden-Sydney  College,  39. 

Hay  wood,  historian,  mentioned,  168. 

Henry  VI IF,  8. 

Henry,  Elizabeth,  54. 

Henry,  Patrick,  leads  in  the  Revolu 
tion,  52,  87;  Everett,  Alexander  H., 
quoted  as  to,  53;  Jefferson  on,  52; 
exclaims,  "we  must  fight,"  87; 
mentioned,  119;  defense  of  Baptist 
ministers,  120;  early  habits,  130; 
studies  law,  130;  takes  his  seat  in 
House  of  Burgesses,  130;  his  reso 
lutions  in  that  body.  131;  his  speech 
—opposition  to  resolutions  by  old 
leaders,  132;  exciting  scenes,  132; 
mentioned,  143,  144;  John,  father 
of  Patrick,  130. 

Highland  soldiers— their  outrages, 
24;  note  also. 

Highlanders  in  North  Carolina  un 
der  Donald  McDonald,  101. 

Holland,  32. 

Huguenots,  105,  245,  252. 

"  Ian  McClaren,"  note,  35. 

Illinois,  legislature  of,  in  1834,  219. 

Independents.  30,  181,  188. 

Ingersoll,  Judge  H.  H.,  mentioned  in 
preface. 

Intolerance  in  1750  in  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut,  121. 

Itinerant  teachers,  38. 

Ireland,  26;  lands  .of  nobles  confis 
cated  by  James  I,  26;  planted  a 
Scotch  and  an  English  colony  on 
them,  26. 

Irish  settlements,  37. 

James  I,  19,  21,  26,  36,  201. 

James  II,  19.  26. 

Jefferson  College,  39. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  quoted  as  to  in 
dependence,  87;  mentioned,  118, 
119:  a  young  law  student  listening 
to  Patrick  Henry,  133;  becomes  a 
reformer  in  the  legislature,  134; 
why  he  was  such,  134;  a  philanthro 
pist.  136;  learned  from  the  Cove 
nanters,  135;  his  inconsistency  in 
his  writings,  139:  dislike  of  the 
Presbyterians,  140;  a  free-thinker, 
141;  h'is  letter  to  Peter  Carr,  141; 
mentioned,  143. 

Kenton,  77. 

King's  Mountain,  battle  of,  67,  114; 
importance  of,  73;  battle  fought  by 
Covenanters,  67;  remarks  on,  71; 
Jefferson  on,  74. 


258 


INDEX. 


Knox,  John,  12,  13,  14,  243;  returns 
home,  12;  heads  the  Reformation, 
12;  his  character,  13;  establishes 
schools,  33,  50;  his  declaration,  119; 
Carlyle  on,  248. 

Lacy,  Colonel,  68. 

Landlords  in  Ireland— their  exac 
tions,  28. 

Laud,  25. 

Lecky,  quoted,  34,  248. 

Liberty  Hnll,  started,  129;  becomes 
Washington  College,  129. 

Logan,  James,  mentioned,  77,  1C6. 

Londonderry,  28. 

London  Hill',  25. 

Lowlanders,  25. 

Lundy,  Benjamin*  208. 

Luther,  mentioned,  243. 

Macaulav,  quoted,  32.  34;  on  the 
Scottish  preachers,  246. 

Madison,  James,  74,  119;  quoted,  121; 
mentioned,  143. 

Mary  of  Guise,  11. 

Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of  Scots,  11, 14,  15. 

Mary  of  England,  19. 

Mason,  George,  mentioned,  118;  a  re 
former,  134. 

Massachusetts,  treated  as  an  alien 
by  England,  85;  reluctant  to  break 
from  England,  85;  tender  ties  for, 
85;  ideas  all  English,  85;  soldiers  in 
Revolution,  111;  reasons  for,  113, 
114,  115;  splendid  record  in  the 
war,  116;  narrow  and  fanatical  in 
religion,  186:  the  Church,  the  State, 
186;  cruel  law  quoted.  192;  cruel 
order  quoted,  193;  women  whipped, 
193;  punishment  of  Quakers,  194; 
leader  of  advanced  thought— claim 
examined,  201;  caste  in,  202,  203; 
religious  intolerance  in  Constitu 
tion,  205;  lovable  features  of,  212; 
enumerated,  212,  213;  swing  of  the 
pendulum  in,  222. 

Mather,  Cotton,  picture  of,  184. 

Meade,  Bishop,  quoted,  124,  125. 

Mecklenburg,  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  64;  resolutions,  64;  note 
on,  66. 

Melville,  Andrew,  33,  36,  50. 

Mendon,  Mass..  action  of,  55. 

Methodism,  244. 

Methodist  Church,  234;  itinerant  sys 
tem  of,  235;  number  of,  238;  num 
ber  of  ministers,  240. 

Methodists,  105. 

Ministers  of  the  Kirk,  16,  17,  18;  re 
quired  to  adhere  to  book  of  canons 
and  liturgy,  21;  not  allowed  to  cel 
ebrate  marriage  rites  in  Ulster,  28; 
of  Knox's  school,  246;  Buckle  on, 
250. 


Mississippi,  the  western  boundary, 

79. 

Moravians,  121. 
McDowell,  Colonel,  68,  69. 
McDowells  mentioned,  130. 
Mclntosh,  Rev.  Dr.,  referred  to,  163. 
McMaster,  quoted,  106. 

National  League  and  Covenant,  ori 
gin  of,  22. 

Navigation  Act,  83. 

Netherlands,  30. 

Nobles,  the  Scottish,  10;  stripped  of 
all  power,  10. 

Oglelhorpe's  colony,  107. 

Osborne,  Charles.  208. 

Otis,  James,  Jr.,  refuses  to  prosecute 
for  the  Crown,  84;  his  indignant 
eloquenee;  84;  mentioned,  133. 

Palfrey,  quoted,  192. 

Papacy  abolished,  13. 

Parochial  schools  in  Scotland,  36. 

Parton,  quoted  as  to  clergy  in  Vir 
ginia,  124;  as  to  Quakers,  125. 

Pattons  metioned,  130. 

Pennsylvania  people  overthrow  pro 
prietary  government,  57;  Cove 
nanters  in,  57;  Covenanter  soldiers 
from,  59. 

Pentland  Hills,  battle  of.  23. 

Perry,  Prof.  A.  L.,  quoted,  159. 

Persecutions,  19. 

Peyton,  Bailie,  on  battle  of  King's 
Mountain,  72. 

Pilgrims,  the,  182,245,  252. 

Plowden,  quoted  as  to  "  Irish  immi 
grants"  in  the  Revolution,  59. 

Population  in  1776 — a  majority  in  the 
South,  92;  in  Virginia,  93;  in  the 
South,  93;  in  New  England,  93; 
number  of,  in  all  the  Colonies  in 
1775,  93;  number  of,  in  States  in 
1790,  93;  in  New  England  not  all 
Puritans,  93,  95;  Covenanters  in  the 
Colonies  in  1775,  94;  Covenanters 
one-third  of,  96. 

Presbyterianism  in  Scotland,  21;  gave 
the  world  political  and  religious 
liberty.  245:  what  it  has  done  for 
education  in  the  South,  245;  Car 
lyle  on,  246;  record  in  the  South, 
253. 

Presbyterian  marriages  in  Ireland, 
28;  '"children  of  such  bastards," 
28;  ministers,  37;  "Junta,"  46. 

Presbyterians,  22,  232,  233;  a  majority 
of  Southern  people.  99;  number  of, 
in  certain  States, 238;  in  education, 
239;  education  of  ministers,  240; 
number  of,  240;  pre-eminently  il 
lustrious  in  the  cause  of  human 
rights,  253. 


INDEX. 


259 


Presbytery  of  Hanover,  47,  129;  sends 
petitions  to  legislature  asking  for 
religious  liberty,  136;  of  Hanover, 
quoted,  186;  again  petitions,  137; 
sixtimesitpetitions,  137;  the"  Cov 
enanter  Memorial,"  quoted,  138. 

Prestons  mentioned,  54,  130. 

Princeton  College,  origin  of,  39. 

Prince  of  India,  quoted,  242. 

Pulpit,  the,  power  of,  141. 

"Puritans  of  the  South,"  108;  and 
Covenanters  compared,  108, 109, 110; 
and  Cavaliers,  117;  in  England,  30; 
at  Salem,  30;  in  New  England,  82; 
feelings  toward  England,  88;  their 
grievances,  88;  nearly  free  and  in 
dependent,  83;  not  oppressed,  83; 
resist  the  writs  of  assistance,  83; 
excitement  among,  84;  originally 
Calvinists,  92;  their  injuries  funda 
mental  in  character,  92;  animated 
by  a  love  for  liberty,  92;  their  splen 
did  history  since  1761,  180;  briefly 
compared  with  Covenanters,  183; 
the  Church,  the  State,  186;  the 
Church  absolute,  186;  the  town 
meetings  undemocratic,  1S7;  laws 
of.  quoted.  192:  cruelty  to  Quakers, 
194;  gloomy  record  of,  for  a  century 
and  a  half,"  198,  199;  doubtful  if  the 
best  educated  people  in  the  Colo 
nies,  200;  lovable  features  of,  212, 
213,  214;  their  work,  245. 

Quakers,  103,  121;  unfriendly  to  Cov 
enanters,  106;  in  the  pillory,  135;  in 
the  jail,  136;  of  Pennsylvania,  op 
pose  the  Revolution,  56. 

Ramsay,  historian  of  South  Carolina, 
quoted  as  to  the  Irish,  59. 

Ramsey,  historian  of  Tennessee, 
quoted.  69;  mentioned,  168. 

Randolph,  Edmund.  119. 

Rankin,  John,  208. 

Reformation,  the,  10. 

Regent  of  Scotland,  11;  plots  to  de 
stroy  the  Protestants,  11;  to  annex 
Scotland  to  France,  11. 

Religious  sects,  numbers  of,  238,  239. 

Robertson,  James,  77. 

Robertson,  William,  mentioned,  130. 

Romish  Church,  18. 

Ross,  Rev.  D.  M.,  quoted,  note,  35. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  note,  80;  quot 
ed.  162. 

Rutledge,  John,  74. 

Schools  in  Ireland,  36. 

Scotch-Irish,  41,  108;  and  Covenant 
ers—terms  explained,  230,  231;  in 
the  South,  204. 

Scotch  Puritans,  their  influence  in 
England  and  Ameriaa,  31.  caused 
overthrow  of  monarchy,  31. 


Scotch,  the  best  educated  people  in 
Europe,  34. 

Scotland,  common  people  of,  11,  16, 
17;  Catholic  priesthood,  11:  people 
join  the  Reformation,  11;  strip  the 
monasteries,  11;  Calvinistic  faith, 
10;  Church  polity,  17;  Parliament 
reconstructs  the  Church,  12:  Kirk 
of,  13;  scholars,  poets,  historians 
of,  26;  rebellion  in,  32;  people  rude 
and  ignorant,  33;  schools  estab 
lished,  33;  laws  as  to  schools,  36. 

Separatists,  30,  181,  182. 

Sevier,  John,  68,  69,  77,  114. 

Sharp,  Archbishop,  23. 

Shelby,  Isaac,  68,  69, 114;  Evan,  77. 

Slavery  in  the  South-west,  207. 

Smith,  Charles  Lee,  quoted,  158. 

"Sons  of  Liberty,"  46. 

South,  public  sentiment  in,  177;  pub- 
tliings  sacred,  178;  public  respect 
for  religion,  178. 

Southern  Colonies — intense  love  of 
liberty— Mr.  Burke  on  the  cause, 
146;  people,  characteristics  of,  177; 
women,  tribute  to,  177. 

Stamp  Act,  the,  84,  130,  131. 

States,  Southern,  purity  of  blood  in — 
groups  of,  compared — States  com 
pared,  99,  100. 

Stuarts  mentioned.  130. 

Sunbury  colony,  107. 

Sutherland,  R.  R.,  D.D.,  mentioned 
in  preface. 

Sycamore  Shoals,  69. 

Synod  of  North  Carolina  enjoins 
"the  duty  of  establishing  grammar 
schools,"  39. 

Synod  of  Philadelphia — its  influence 
in  the  Revolution,  47,  48. 

Talleyrand's,  De,  opinion  of  Hamil 
ton,  75. 

Tax  on  tea,  84. 

Taylor,  Malcolm,  referred  to  and 
quoted,  61. 

Tea  emptied  into  the  bay,  84. 

Thompson,  George,  209. 

Todd,  77. 

Tories  in  the  Revolution— one-third 
the  population,  101,  111;  their  pred 
atory  warfare,  112. 

Treaty  of  peace  of  1783 — western 
boundary,  79. 

Ulster,  27;  very  prosperous,  37. 
University  of  Aberdeen,  36. 
University  of  Edinbugh,87. 
University  of  Glasgow,  36,  37,  38. 
University  of  St.  Andrew,  33,  36. 

Virginia,  soldiers  in  the  Revolution, 
111;  early  penal  code,  120;  penalties 
in  religious  matters,  120;  early  in- 


260 


INDEX. 


habitants — who  they  were,  122: 
many  densely  ignorant,  123;  life  in 
the  upper  classes,  124;  the  clergy 
men.  124;  Bishop  Meade  on,  124; 
condition  of  Old  Virginia  gloomy, 
125;  cultivation  of  tobacco,  12«>; 
lower  classes,  126;  not  a  single 
great  name,  120;  penal  code  not  al 
ways  enforced,  127;  New  Virginia 
born,  133;  Old  Virginia  passing 
away,  133;  anti-Revolutionary  in 
habitants,  traits  of,  144;  their  loy 
alty,  145;  their  proud  spirit,  145; 
inhabitants  independent,  145;  Vir 
ginians  in  the  Revolution,  146;  Es 
tablished  Church  in,  118;  immense 
size  of  landed  estates,  14S;  tobacco 
passes  ascurrency,  148;  indentured 
servants,  148;  splendid  hospitality 
on  great  estates,  14'J;  no  longer  a 
Cavalier  State,  150;  Covenanters 
the  superior  lace,  150. 

Washington  College.  Tennessee,  39. 
Washington  College,  Virginia,  39. 
Washington,  George,  mentioned,  142, 
143. 


Washington's  chaplains,  note,  60. 
Watauga  and  Hplston  settlements,  78. 
Watauga  Association — its  memorial, 

mi. 

Watson,  Dr.  John,  35,  note. 

Watterson,  Henry,  on  the  Covenant 
ers,  170. 

Wesley,  John,  243;  quoted,  note,  244; 
friend  of  Colonies,  244. 

White,  Prof.  Alexander,  quoted,  187. 

Whittier,  John  G.,  poet,  209. 

William  and  Mary  College,  123. 

William  and  Mary — law  establishing 
common  schools,  34. 

William  II,  Prince  of  Orange,  25. 

Williams,  Colonel,  68. 

Williams,  Roger,  229,  243;  the  advo 
cate  of  freedom  of  conscience,  237. 

Wilson,  James,  74. 

Witherspoon,  Rev.  Dr.  John,  speech 
in  Continental  Congress,  57;  men 
tioned,  122. 

Winston,  Colonel,  68. 

Writs  of  assistance,  83. 

Wythe,  George,  mentioned,  118;  a  re 
former,  134. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


RENEWED  BOOKS  ARE  SUBJECT  TO  IMMEDIATE 
RECALL 


UUl  3  1 

Rtt'O  OCT281967 

NOVg?  '967 

0 


LIBRARY,  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 

Book  Slip-50w-12,'64(F772s4)458 


382948 

Temple,  O.P. 

The    Covenanter,  the 
Cavalier,  and  the 
Puritan. 


C8 
T2 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF   CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


